Merge coming sooner- Vitalik Buterin
In a tweet on Tuesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the Merge is likely to take place between September 13-15. The increased hash rate of the network is pushing the Merge to occur before September 15.
The Bellatrix upgrade is set to take place today on the Beacon Chain at 11:34:47 am UTC in epoch 144896. The ETH price has risen by more than 6% ahead of the Bellatrix hard fork.
Vitalik Buterin predicts the merge will take place between September 13-15
In a tweet on September 6, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin predicted that the Merge will take place between September 13-15. He also advises users to update their clients before the Bellatrix hard fork, which is slated for 11:34:47 am UTC on the Beacon Chain at epoch 144896.
“The merge is still expected to happen around Sep 13-15. What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which prepares the chain for the merge. Still important though – make sure to update your clients!”
The readiness for the Merge has reached nearly 99%, according to OKLink's Ethereum The Merge Countdown. Furthermore, the network hash rate is 892.23 TH/s, which is still above the required level of 872 TH/s to trigger the merge of Ethereum Mainnet and Beacon Chain at the set terminal total difficulty (TTD) of 58750000000000000000000.
The Bellatrix hard fork prepares the Beacon Chain (consensus layer) for the merge with Ethereum Mainnet (execution layer). To effectively validate blocks following the hard fork, all nodes must update their clients. The hard fork modifies the protocol by adding new rules.
The following upgrade will be a Paris hard fork on the execution layer. The Merge will take place during September 13-15.
The expected date is September 15 at 09:44:01 UTC, according to the Ethereum Foundation's recommended Merge date tracker. The data changes depending on the hash rate. However, September 14 is the most likely date.
The price of Ethereum (ETH) rises ahead of the hard fork
The price of Ethereum (ETH) is rising in anticipation of the Bellatrix upgrade. The price of ETH has increased by more than 6% in the last 24 hours, with the current price trading at R28.4K.
The trade volume has increased by 65%. Also, Ethereum has a 24-hour low of R26.7K and a high of R28.6K. However, the surge will be brief, as the ETH price is expected to fall after the Merge.
