The topic of Etherium has been hotly debated among cryptocurrency enthusiasts in recent days. A trader by the name of Vivek Raman, among others, has contributed to this. The day before, he separately noted that the upcoming migration of the Eth network to Proof of Ownership or PoS will not affect the cryptocurrency’s blockchain fees in any way.

In other words, there will still be the same amount of block space in Etherium, and they will not be created any faster. Consequently, the network will still be vulnerable to congestion and a surge in transaction costs. Which means it’s definitely not worth waiting for commissions like those on the Solana network just yet.

Etherium creator Vitalik Buterin

When will Etherium switch to Proof-of-Stake

Here’s what an Etherium developer under the nickname superphiz.eth has to say about it on Twitter.

The merger date is not final, but it’s very exciting to see the whole workflow finally coming together. Please treat this date as a planning element and keep an eye out for other official announcements.

In other words, the developers have made it clear that this timetable is approximate, which means that the update may actually happen later. Anyway, an approximate plan is already in place, so it's at least a good starting point.

Schedule of events before the merger

As we noted earlier, the Beacon Chain, which is a Proof-of-Stake test version of Etherium, is now operating in parallel with the main blockchain of Etherium based on the Proof-of-Work algorithm. The Beacon Chain was launched in December 2020 as one of the steps in the long transition to the project’s second version of the protocol.

Here’s a recording of the developers’ call.

The developers are due to conduct final tests before the merger itself on Goerli’s test network. That event is scheduled for August 11, Decrypt reports, and it’s largely on its success that the final merger date will depend. However, developers hint that unless force majeure occurs in the coming weeks, Etherium will move to Proof-of-Stake in September.

On topic: Most of the Ethereum 2.0 network's stackers are in the red. How big is the loss?

As a reminder, the operation of the Ethereum network will be completely transformed after the merger. Instead of miners, validators will confirm transactions, and the proof of their bona fides will be an attachment of ETH to the corresponding smart contract. To get the role of a validator, a crypto-enthusiast must allocate 32 ETH. However, with special pools like Lido, any amount can be invested – and the reward will be proportional to the investment.

Some believe that the move to Proof-of-Stake will significantly reduce fees and increase blockchain throughput. In reality, PoS will only be a launching pad for such improvements. Well, the network’s ability to conduct more transactions will primarily be affected by the sharding we are already familiar with.

ETH balance in the altcoin deposit smart contract

The most popular competitors of Etherium run exactly on Proof-of-Stake. Among them are Solana, Avalanche and Cosmos. So far, they have “reclaimed” a significant part of the market, in part because of affordable fees and high transaction speeds. Experts suggest that after a successful upgrade to Ethereum 2.0, the project will, among other things, start gaining capitalization due to the outflow of funds from its competitors’ ecosystems, but we rather count on the general development of the blockchain industry.

True, even after the merger itself, there could be problems with the current Etherium networks. According to analysts at the HOPR platform, validators will have the ability to launch targeted attacks against individual network members by publishing their own IP addresses and linking their public keys to blocks. In theory, such tactics could economically “crack down” on new validators – that is, those who have not yet deposited their funds in an Etherium smart contract.

However, such problems are sure to be resolved over time. For now, however, the key task for the developers of Etherium is precisely to move the network to a new consensus mechanism.

Etherium and other cryptocurrencies


We believe that the given dates should be taken seriously, but not definitively. As we have seen in previous updates, important updates can be pushed back as bugs predictably pop up during testing. And with Eth being the world's second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, the developers can't afford to take any chances and bring the testing process to an end. Perhaps a similar thing will happen this time.


We’re only a couple of months away from an Efirium update, so sign up for our cryptochat and stay tuned for other developer announcements. We’ll tell you about a lot more there as well.