Ethereum Launches First Mainnet Shadow Fork in Preparation for The Merge

Ethereum is getting closer to the transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), so the developers launched the first “shadow fork” of the main network. Its goal is to stress test existing assumptions about test nests and the mainnet.

Ethereum Foundation Developer Parithosh Jayanthi said that the fork adds merge related fields to the configs of existing testnets. “In doing so, we essentially inherit the state/txs of the canonical testnet,” he tweeted on April 10, according to Crypto Potato. Through inheriting the state of existing testnets, the developer’s assumptions around syncing and block construction time may be stress tested. The shadow fork stays connected to peers on the canonical Ethereum chain, meaning some transactions will appear on both chains.

Enter "shadow forking"! To shadow fork an existing testnet, we take its config and add merge related fields such as Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) and Merge Fork Block (for peering, forkID changes).

In doing so, we essentially inherit the state/txs of the canonical testnet. pic.twitter.com/qvfPTbDtsE

— parithosh | 🐼👉👈🐼 (@parithosh_j) April 10, 2022

According to the new shadow fork’s block explorer, over 2,231,000 transactions have already been processed. It also has over one million wallet addresses registered and over 14.5 million blocks, each with a production time of 13.1 seconds.

Another Ethereum Foundation developer, Van Der Wijden, called this shadow fork a historical event. Developer Tim Beiko states that the success of this fork is key to determining the date of the actual merge. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said the merge should happen before July of this year.

Jayanthi said that after the fork, there were some problems with Nevermind and Bisu, Ethereum-based software providers. However, they were minor in severity. Other test events on the Ethereum merge have already been successful.

 

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