As Ethereum approaches its long-awaited transition to the Proof of Stake model, developers have launched the first “shadow fork” for the Ethereum mainnet.
According to Ethereum developers, the network’s first-ever shadow fork, which was designed to stress-test developer assumptions on existing testnets and the overall mainnet, was successful.
One Step Closer to ‘the Merge’
The successful launch of the Shadow Fork brings the Ethereum network one step closer to ‘the Merge’, which will see Ethereum transition from Proof of Work (PoW) to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
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According to Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi, the shadow fork will provide “a way to check if our assumptions work on existing testnets and/or mainnet.”
He further explained that the shadow fork will share some of the data with the main Ethereum network, meaning that some transactions could appear on both chains.
According to the new shadow fork’s block explorer, Over 3,295,934 transactions have already been processed, with an average block time of 14.3 seconds. There are over 1.5 million wallet addresses and over 14.5 million blocks on Ethereum’s new Blockchain.
On the Flipside
- Bugs were detected in ‘Nevermind’ and ‘Bisu’ – Ethereum-based software providers. However, they were judged to be minor in severity.
Why You Should Care
Another Ethereum Foundation developer, Tim Beiko, explained that the outcome of the shadow fork is key to determining the timing of the final merge.
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