Ethereum is in its final chapter as a Proof of Work (PoW) network, says one of its developers, Tim Beiko. However, the long-awaited transition to Proof of Stake (PoS) may now be delayed and could take place later than the forecasted deadline of June 2022.
On the topic of the upcoming Ethereum merge, Beiko tweeted a response to ETH miner, who asked whether the mining community should pull the plug in the first month of summer.
Beiko, who runs the core protocol meetings for Ethereum available on Github, replied saying: “It won’t be June, but likely in a few months after. No firm date yet, but we’re definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum”. However, Beiko strongly suggested that miners should not invest more into mining equipment.
It won't be June, but likely in the few months after. No firm date yet, but we're definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) April 12, 2022
Early on Wednesday, other such similar signals appeared on Ethereum-related subreddits, with hints that the network’s transition to PoS could be delayed even further, with some suggesting dates as late as 2023.
Flexpool, an ETH mining pool operator who has been reviewing code and running nodes on the merge testnet, published a statement which read:
“We’ve been reviewing the code and running nodes on the merge testnets and we don’t believe they will be ready until 2023. We plan to actively devote our developers to the merge testnets once they become public and do our best to identify bugs so that the merge is delayed further. This makes it more secure. There is financial incentive for all miners and pools to join the testnets.”
On Monday the Ethereum dev team began the so-called shadow fork on the Ethereum mainnet, which acted as a rehearsal in order to predict any possible events that could occur during the network’s transition from PoW to PoS.
As the Ethereum team later reported, the test fork went smoothly with only a few minor issues being picked up. In the meantime, devs are planning to implement another shadow fork on April 22nd.
The exact date for when Ethereum will fully transition to the Proof of Stake model has yet to be officially confirmed. However, the crypto community has typically speculated that the network’s upgrade may happen in the first month of summer. The Ethereum team has been exploring migration options for years, however, the process has been consistently met with delays.
After the historical upgrade takes place, Ethereum’s blockchain will fully rely on the Proof of Stake mechanism, which will fundamentally change the way transactions are validated, making the network cheaper and more efficient, while also having lower energy consumption rates.
