Ethereum Final Upgrade Bellatrix Goes Live: Next Stop The Merge

September is the month of Ethereum and the Merge.

Bellatrix – Ethereum’s final upgrade ahead of Merge – has finally kicked off at epoch 144,896 on Tuesday. With the activation of Bellatrix, the team made one step closer to the high-anticipated Merge planned for the coming weeks this month.

The Merge, which will transition Ethereum from the Proof-of-Work mechanism to the Proof-of-Stake mechanism, takes place over the course of many days and will be completed when the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) reaches a specific value (5875000000000000000000).

Bellatrix Let’s See it!!!

Within the next few days, the difficulty level is going to climb to the point where it will be impossible to mine any additional ETH. Once the TTD reaches the mentioned specific value, the fusion upgrade will be activated, and then the Beacon Chain will be merged into the mainnet.

This will mark the beginning of the era of staking on Ethereum. The developers anticipate that this will take place between September 14 and September 16.

After eight years of delays, Ethereum has taken major steps to prepare and also scheduled the launch of the Ethereum The Merge upgrade at the beginning of 2022.

The Merge is the upgrade event of the Ethereum network that represents the official transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. Once the upgrade is completed, the Ethereum 2.0 chain will be born with the fusion of the existing mainnet Ethereum chain and the Beacon chain.

PoS Here We Come

As the transition to a PoS mechanism for Ethereum draws near, miners of Ether are looking to new blockchains.

According to data from 2miners, the hash rate of Ethereum Classic (ETC), is greater than 48 TH/s as the Merge approaches. This represents the all-time high level ever reached by the cryptocurrency.

The price of Ethereum Classic (ETC) has risen by more than 25% in the past day, pushing it beyond the $40 threshold. This increase comes as the ETH breakdown appears to be drawing ever closer.

Traders also appear to be placing bets on the latest version of Ethereum, which operates under the PoS consensus model.

The crypto business has had a rough start to the year. The catastrophe wiped out approximately $1 trillion in market value, causing thousands of people to lose their life savings. Many businesses also declared bankruptcy.

Look at the Good Side

The whole bleak scenario calls for an uptick, or at the very least, something truly encouraging to count on as support. And the Merge is the event that is anticipated to bring about the most significant shift in the market’s status quo.

Additionally, the upgrading of the software that runs the Ethereum network is a crucial factor in the development of other projects.

It is the foundation that provides the support system for the thousands of cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects that are now under development. In the past, there were a lot of individuals who frequently questioned whether or not it actually happened, and now here it is.

On September 15, assuming everything goes according to plan, the Merge will be completed.

As a result, the Ethereum network is able to cut its overall energy usage by as much as 99.9% and its CO2 emissions, rebutting the argument that the cryptocurrency network is hazardous to the environment.

Ether is the currency that represents Ethereum and is the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the world after Bitcoin. This upgrade lays the groundwork for a series of upcoming upgrades with the goal of reducing the cost of making transactions in Ether.

Despite all the hype around the Merge, It is a common misconception that moving to a Proof-of-Stake transaction validation method will fix all of the issues with the second largest cryptocurrency. But it’s seemingly not like that.

Recent statements made by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, nevertheless make this point clear. He estimates that after the major upgrade, the blockchain will only be half finished.

Various projects are now waiting for Ethereum. In particular, they will contribute to the solution of the issues that are associated with its scalability.