Today at 13:34 Bellatrix will be implemented, this is an upgrade for nodes on the Ethereum network. If this is successful, Ethereum will be all set to move to proof of stake later this month.
Ethereum price rises today
The market seems ready for Bellatrix today, witnessed the rise of the Ethereum price. The value has increased by 3.5% and ether is trading for 1644 USD.
Three quarters of Ethereum nodes are ready for Bellatrix
Bellatrix will most likely be executed today at 1:34 pm Europe time. As many as 73.5% of the nodes on the Ethereum network are ready. This is what the website Ethernodes calls “The Merge ready client distribution.
Are you running a node? Then all you need to do is update your Ethereum client (for example, Geth, Besu, Nethermind or Erigon), to the latest version.
The Bellatrix upgrade is considered one of the last necessary steps prior to the official transition. Ethereum will transition from proof of work (known from Bitcoin) to proof of stake sometime between September 10 and 20.
Miners obsolete, but nodes remain important on Ethereum
Miners then become redundant and can do something else with their lives, but the role of nodes remains important.
An Ethereum node is nothing more than any computer running the software (client) needed to connect to the Ethereum network. Nodes connect to each other to send information back and forth to validate transactions and store data about the status of the blockchain.
To be ready for The Merge, nodes on Ethereum must perform the Bellatrix upgrade by updating their clients. This must be done before epoch 144896 on the beacon chain, in plain human language that is 13:34 today.
Ethereum founder: important to upgrade
Time to do the math: if three quarters of nodes are ready, that means a quarter are not. Founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin and lead programmer Steve Beiko ask the remaining nodes to download the latest software as soon as possible.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, nodes that do not perform the update prior to the Bellatrix upgrade will cause Ethereum clients to “synchronize with the pre-fork blockchain.”
“Nodes are then stuck in an incompatible chain under old rules and cannot transmit or process Ether on the post-Merge Ethereum network.”
Ethereum Merge is halfway through September
After the Bellatrix upgrade, Ethereum is ready for what they call Paris. This latest upgrade will be activated when the Terminal Total Difficulty reaches 587500000000000000000000000, which is estimated to occur around September 15.
Ethereum actually runs on two blockchains now, the old one that works with proof of work and the new one (Beacon) works with proof of stake. For now, blocks are produced on the old blockchain, logical because that is where all the transactions and activities take place.
But after “Paris” is executed, the subsequent block is produced by the Beacon chain. This marks the transition to proof of stake and the old blockchain dies a quiet death, unless miners unexpectedly continue to produce blocks.
There are miners who plan to do that because it will hopefully allow them to make some more money. But the old blockchain is essentially dead: all apps, defi, stablecoins, transactions, smart contract, games, etc. will have moved to the beacon chain.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum users don’t have to do anything with their cryptocurrencies during the merger, but warn of scammers who claim otherwise.
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