In what is the latest landmark achievement in the Ethereum Foundation’s mission to migrate the network from a proof of work to a proof of stake consensus, yesterday a new shadow fork merge happened – veteran Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden tweeted.
Another dev from the Ethereum team, Parithosh Jayanthi, set forth that the shadow fork was deployed to stress test the network to ‘reinforce’ the kiln testnet that is currently running. Kiln was created to allow community members to take their nodes, smart contracts, and infrastructure on PoS test runs.
Testing the network
Since Kiln launched as a new testnest, there was a need to stress test the existing assumptions around state growth, hence the shadow fork. Further, shadow forking would help stress test timeouts – the period it takes to build a block and check assumptions held in relation to syncing. The shadow fork also provides developers with a basis for determining if the established assumptions function as expected on the testnets and the mainnet.
The results of the stress test would dictate the optimizations needed before the Merge could happen. Non-executive member of the Ethereum team Tim Beiko has reiterated this, indicating that the shadow fork would be critical in determining a date when the Merge would eventually ship, according to Christine Kim, a research associate at Galaxy Digital.
Jayanthi had also cautioned that this would be a first-time mainnet shadow fork, advising that only well-versed users join it.
What to expect
Via a tweet shared on Monday, Jayanthi said that the shadow fork ran successfully, only reporting minor issues with software solutions providers Besu and Nethermind. He said the shadow fork would be tried again next week. Meanwhile, within the coming week, the fork will be tried with several more edge cases. The team will also run more sync tests against it.
Also, while the transition from PoW to PoS is primarily expected to bring improved conditions around Ethereum, the eventual migration is a complex resource-consuming process that would present high risks. Even simulations cannot wholly relay the crypto-economic changes expected when rolling out.
The Ethereum developer team also announced Shanghai, the next evolutionary step for its smart contract platform. Shanghai is designed to bring enhanced resource efficiency and performance with the introduction of EVM Object Format (EOF).
Ethereum activity slows down – active addresses slump near 10% in a week
The cryptocurrency markets have been seeing quite a tough couple of days, with the market capital falling below $2 billion yesterday. According to data provided by Coingecko, it sits at $1.92 billion at the time of writing.
This extended dismal period has affected the Ethereum network, with the total count of active addresses on the network declining by as much as 9.84% within the space of a single week. Recent data shared via a tweet by blockchain analytics firm Nansen showed that within the said period, this percentage was higher than BSC’s – 8.27%. However, BSC had more than double the number of seven-day active addresses on Ethereum.
Ether market performance
Ethereum (ETH) has moved up to $3,025 in the last few hours after falling to a low of $2,958. The current valuation has put significant pressure on bulls as the last time Ethereum price hovered around this region was on March 23. The 24-hour ETH/USD trading chart shows that the pair has struggled to remain above the $3,050 mark despite surging to an intraday high of $3,077.45.
ETH/USD 24-hr trading chart
The $3,000 level has been singled out as a crucial level in terms of support as a move south could see it shed all the way to $2,800. On-chain metrics indicate that the token is likely to see extended declines as it is still caught in a bearish wave.
Ultimately, Ether’s price movement in the short-term largely hinges on the direction the leading crypto takes. Should Ether decline, bulls will likely camp at $2,950 or regroup lower at $2,820, depending on how harsh the dip will be. However, a close above $3,075 could potentially spur an ascent with a resistance zone awaiting between $3,120 and $3,150.
To learn more about Ethereum visit our Investing in Ethereum guide.
The post A Step Closer to PoS: Ethereum’s Initial Shadow Fork Goes Live appeared first on Securities.io.
