By Alicia Maher
Buterin made the revelation while delivering his speech at the eth shanghai Web3 developer conference. However, he also stressed that if there are any complications, the completion of The Merge will not exceed September or October.
Buterin Gives Updates About The Ethereum Merge
While speaking at the virtual event, Buterin shared insights on the progress of the Ethereum network regarding its switch to a pos mechanism and other updates in the network. He also disclosed what the Ethereum stands to gain from the switch to a pos consensus.
Buterin further said, “we’ve been trying to make this transition for nearly seven years. But we are glad everything is almost coming to a completion. If there are no issues, we plan to complete The Merge by summer.” The biggest step towards completing The Merge will happen later this month. The Ropsten testnet, which will merge the beacon chain on an Ethereum test network, will happen on May 29.
Through this Ropsten testnet, developers will have insights into how their clients can behave in a less controlled testnet situation. The Ethereum CEO also shared updates on when the execution layer features on the PoS light client, Beacon Chain, and EIP 1559 will be completed.
Buterin also disclosed that the developers would keep working on other long-term features like the better signature aggregation, secret leader election, and single-slot confirmations. He also provided updates regarding ‘The Surge’ and ‘The Verge.’ the former utilizes sharding to enhance scalability for rollups. In contrast, the latter uses Verkle Trees and associated features to achieve statelessness for the network.
Completing The Surge and The Verge will enable users to perform more large volume transactions. Also, they would no longer need a PC with ample hard drive space to run an Ethereum node. Thus, the validator’s work becomes easier while the network becomes better decentralized.
Buterin also hinted that the purge and the splurge update would remove technical debt and historical data. Thus, removing the excess load from the Ethereum protocol. But the Ethereum co-founder reiterated that the focus right now is on completing The Merge and the surge, which he said will be sufficient for the network. He added that the main goal is to simplify the network and make it more secure.
Buterin Shares Opinions On Terra Network Crash
While speaking on the recent crash of the Terra network, Buterin remarked that the earliest DeFi and stablecoin projects had no issues. He further said that the failure of the recent projects was due to their over-optimization by the projects’ team.
He added that it is almost impossible for stablecoin to retain its USD peg without being collateralized. The UST stablecoin failed to survive the bear market despite thriving during the bull market.
One of the network’s core developers (Preston Van Loon) also gave a similar timeframe as Buterin to complete The Merge. Van loon was interviewed at an ongoing blockchain-related event when he made those remarks.