Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is reminding node operators to upgrade their clients before the Bellatrix “hard fork,” slated for Sept. 6. Buterin said that the scheduled upgrade will be the final update that prepares the Beacon chain (proof-of-stake chain) for the Merge. 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! — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 6, 2022 An Ethereum client is the software that allows Ethereum nodes to read blocks on the blockchain and …

As many as 73.5% of Ethereum nodes are now marked as “Merge ready” ahead of the upcoming Bellatrix upgrade for Ethereum on Sept. 6, according to data from Ethernodes. The Bellatrix upgrade is seen as one of the last necessary steps prior to the official Merge, which will see Ethereum transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism between Sept. 10-20. To become Merge ready, Ethereum node operators must comply with the Bellatrix upgrade by updating its consensus layer clients prior to epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain, which is scheduled to take place on 11:34:47am UTC on Sept. 6, 2022, according …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Monday that it plans to halt all deposits and withdrawals of Ethereum (ETH) and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) on selected networks, starting September 6th at 2 am (UTC) in anticipation of Ethereum's Merge event. #Binance will suspend deposits and withdrawals for Ether $ETH and Wrapped Ether $WETH on the following networks starting from September 6, 2022 at 02:00am UTC. ETH (Arbitrum) ETH (OP) WETH (RON) — Binance (@binance) September 5, 2022 In the announcement, the company shared a list of tokens and networks that will be impacted during the Merge — Namely ETH (Arbitrum), ETH (OP) and …

Cardano has set September 22 as the date for its Vasil mainnet upgrade, founder of the blockchain Charles Hoskinson announced on his YouTube vlog Friday. The hard fork was originally scheduled for June of this year and rescheduled twice. According to Cardano-associated R&D company Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), which worked on the update, three necessary critical mass indicators have been reached: “1. 75% of mainnet blocks being created by the final Vasil node candidate (1.35.3) 2. approximately 25 exchanges upgraded (representing 80% of ada liquidity) 3. top 10 DApps by TVL confirming they have upgraded to 1.35.3 on PreProduction …

Cardano (ADA) market has witnessed back-to-back pieces of good news since Aug. 31, from its listing on Robinhood, a U.S.-based retail investment platform, to the release of its first lending and borrowing protocol, Aada Finance. Additionally, Cardano developer IOHK stated that they are close to clinching "three critical mass indicators" that would lead to the launch of their long-awaited Vasil hard fork in September. Vasil aims to improve Cardano's scalability and transaction throughput through pipelining. The upgrade could also improve the decentralized application (DApp) and smart contract capabilities by changing the Plutus script, a programming language used for smart contracts …

As the date for the Ethereum Merge approaches, nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has announced that it will focus on supporting only the NFTs that are on the upgraded proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. In an announcement on Twitter, the NFT marketplace said that while their team is not speculating on any potential forks, it clarified that if there are forked NFTs, they will not reflect on OpenSea as the platform will only support the upgraded chain. The NFT marketplace also highlighted that its team is preparing the NFT trading platform for any issues that may arise with the upcoming Ethereum Merge …

Ethereum (ETH) hodlers that don’t play their cards right following the Ethereum Merge may be in for a hefty bill come tax time, according to tax experts. Around Sept.15, the Ethereum blockchain is set to transition from its current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS), aimed at improving the network’s impact on the environment. There is a chance that The Merge will result in a contentious hard fork, which will cause ETH holders to receive duplicate units of hard-forked Ethereum tokens, similar to what happened when the Ethereum and Ethereum Classic hard fork occurred in 2016. Tax compliance firm …

Ether (ETH) is the second largest crypto by market capitalization and the absolute leader in decentralized applications by deposits. Becoming a victim of its own success, the network experienced a fee hike in November 2021 when the average transaction costs surpassed $50. That's precisely why the Merge is a critical step to implementing a fully functional scaling solution. The confirmation of a transition to a proof of stake (PoS) consensus was the main driver for the rally toward $2,000 on Aug. 15. Investors were partially excited about the reduced issuing schedule and likely a transition to a deflationary scenario, but …

Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the blockchain company behind the Cardano network says the much anticipated Vasil hard fork is “ever closer” after revealing the state of three critical indicators that will trigger the mainnet update. In a Twitter thread posted on Aug. 25, IOHK shared its latest “rollout status” of the Vasil upgrade to its 265,800 followers, with updates on “three critical mass indicators” which will determine when the mainnet update will go ahead. This includes having 75% of mainnet blocks produced by nodes running 1.35.3, around 25 exchanges upgraded (representing 80% of liquidity) as well as the top …

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has continued to refute claims that the Cardano’s testnet is “catastrophically broken,” implying the need to finally move forward with the long-delayed Vasil hard fork. In a Twitter thread on Aug. 21, Hoskinson shared his frustration concerning some of the videos claiming Cardano’s testnet has a “catastrophic” issue, which stems from an Aug. 19 thread from Cardano ecosystem developer Adam Dean. The developer claimed that the testnet is “catastrophically broken” due to an undiscovered bug in Cardano’s Node v 1.35.2 that creates incompatible forks — which had managed to slip under the radar of the previous …

The Ethereum blockchain is all set to make its highly anticipated transition from its current proof-of-work (PoW) mining consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS). The Merge date is officially scheduled for Sept. 15–16 after the successful final Goerli testnet integration to the Beacon Chain on Aug. 11. At present, miners can create new Ether (ETH) by pledging a huge amount of computing power. After the Merge, however, network participants, known as validators, will be required to instead pledge large amounts of pre-existing ETH to validate blocks, creating more ETH and earning staking rewards. The three-phase transition process began on Dec. 1, 2020, …

The Ethereum network’s long-awaited transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake is set to occur on Sept 15 to Sept. 16 and for the last year traders and analysts have been discussing various outcomes for the upgrade and possible trading strategies. Let’s take a look at three options investors and traders have. Hodl ETH to earn the expected “hardfork” token The first strategy is relatively simple. Traders can simply buy Ether (ETH) in the spot market and hold it in their exchange wallet, or whatever platform/wallet will support forked tokens, and wait for the expected PoW token. Way back in 2017, when …