Test on the Sepolia network is considered a success

The developers of Ethereum successfully conducted The Merge test on the Sepolia testnet. As a result, the group assesses that the update should not have any delays in its mainnet release schedule.

The test

During the test, Sepolia’s Proof-of-Work (PoW) chain, also known as the execution layer, merged with the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Beacon Chain.

The two are also called the execution layer and the consensus layer, respectively. In fact, this is the same merger that will take place on ETH after The Merge hits the mainnet.

According to Anthony Sassano, the team considered the test a success. The initiative featured a live broadcast performed by the developers involved in the update.

With the success of the test, the next mission will be to take The Merge tests to another network, Goerli. Then the testing phase will come to an end and the update will finally go to the mainnet.

“Thank you to everyone who watched The Merge audition live stream at Sepolia!! The transition was successful (and the chain ended!), so now it’s time to monitor for the next few days. Then we will test it on Goerli and finally on the mainnet. The Merge is coming,” Sassano said on Twitter.

No delay on The Merge

The development of transitioning to a PoS engine has suffered partial delays in the past. This made the upgrade, planned since the launch of Ethereum, take almost eight years to happen.

Currently, however, the wait seems to have finally come to an end. With the success of the test, the developers keep the mainnet launch deadline until the end of the year.

However, the test also recorded some setbacks. According to ETH protocol developer Terence Tsao, between 25 and 30% of validators went offline after the merger. Validators will be the stand-in for current miners in the process of validating transactions and blocks.

Tsao later blamed the problem on “wrong settings” and said that this will not delay the launch of The Merge on the mainnet.

The Merge releases on testnets basically serve as a “rehearsal” for ETH developers, giving them a fair idea of ​​what challenges to expect when the update hits the mainnet.

In live stream, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin pointed out some challenges of The Merge on the Merge mainnet. For example, the update will include third-party infrastructure that is not currently available during test networks.

“So there may be non-critical issues like this that will show up in The Merge that we’re not catching with these tests. There are a lot of peripheral issues that are not being tested and that is inevitable and probably a good thing,” Vitalik said.