Bellatrix has been activated, the last stop until The Merge of Ethereum

By
Cesar Villullas
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the merge

As if it were a countdown on a launch pad, Ethereum has now officially begun its particular takeoff. Today, Bellatrix, the hard fork that prepares the network for The Merge, the definitive merger that will transfer ETH from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), has been successfully activated.

Next step: September 15 with The Merge

This beginning of the new era of Ethereum will culminate on September 15 with The Merge, or the merger between the two blockchains that are currently active. At some point that day, the Ethereum mainnet execution client will merge with the Beacon Chain's Proof-of-Stake consensus client. After the merger, Ethereum nodes will have an execution client (Eth1) and a consensus client (Eth2); both are required for a full Ethereum node to function after the merge.

«The merger is still expected to occur around September 13-15. What's happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which prepares the chain for the merge. However, it is still important:make sure you update your clients!«Vitalik Buterin wrote on Twitter.

For its part, the price of Ethereum has reacted with increases of up to 6% today. After the activation of Bellatrix, no excessive volatile movements have been noticed in ETH.

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