Ethereum Sepolia Testnet Beacon Chain Goes Live; Ready for Trial Merge

The Sepolia testnet Beacon Chain goes live, preparing Ethereum developers for what to expect once the complete merge occurs.

The Sepolia Testnet Beacon Chain Is Now Live

The Beacon Chain on the Sepolia testnet is now operational, paving the way for the merging rehearsal that will provide Ethereum network developers with invaluable technical insights.

The Sepolia testnet will begin establishing consensus using proof-of-stake (PoS) rather than proof-of-work (PoW) after combining with its dedicated Beacon Chain, providing data on what may happen when the Ethereum mainnet merges. The precise date of the Sepolia merge has yet to be confirmed.

Testnet merges are necessary for Ethereum developers and independent project developers who use the Ethereum network to understand what to expect when the final merge occurs. The Ethereum mainnet merging, like the testnets, will see the entire network shift to PoS consensus, which should lower Ethereum’s energy consumption by 99.9%.

Sepolia to Replace Ropsten

Sepolia was launched in October 2021. Tim Beiko, a core Ethereum developer, reported in April that the Ropsten testnet would be taken out and replaced by Sepolia over time. As a result, projects running apps on Ropsten have been strongly encouraged to move their work to Sepolia in order to avoid difficulties.

Public testnets such as Sepolia and Ropsten are developed to mimic the operational conditions of their respective mainnets without interfering with the live mainnet. Ropsten is the longest-running testnet since its inception in 2016. The merge occurred on June 8, marking the very first case of a trial merge for Ethereum.

The official Ethereum mainnet merge date has been pushed back multiple times. It is presently scheduled to be completed by August 2022, but that timeframe could be pushed back further owing to a separate delay in the difficulty bomb. When finished, it will give birth to the Consensus Layer, formerly referred to as Ethereum 2.0.

The difficulty bomb is an Ethereum network feature that will disincentivize Ether (ETH) miners utilizing physical devices by substantially raising the difficulty of producing a new block.

Ethereum 2.0 Could Cut Mining Power Use

Ethereum 2.0, the proof-of-stake model, is an alternative paradigm that Ethereum’s developers have been anticipating since the beginning. Individuals would “stake” a specific amount of Ether, the currency used by the Ethereum blockchain, in such a system to receive incentives for running software that correctly combines payments into new units and verifies the work of other verifiers.

With proof-of-stake, the Ethereum channel’s power consumption might be reduced by up to 99.9%. Furthermore, it would lose miners their jobs, which would be disastrous given the financial investment necessary to initiate a business.

However, Because of the lower environmental impact, more financial institutions will purchase Ether, use its blockchain, finance in its networks, and increase adoption.

As a result of the announcement, the ETH price has risen by 5% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. With a price of $1,179 at the time of writing, the asset is 75.8% lower than its all-time high price of $4891, established last year. The price, however, is 276,000% higher than its all-time low.