{"id":908,"date":"2022-06-14T16:11:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T16:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandpascrypto.com\/?p=908"},"modified":"2022-06-14T16:11:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T16:11:28","slug":"ropsten-merge-a-success-but-eth-continues-to-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandpascrypto.com\/ropsten-merge-a-success-but-eth-continues-to-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Ropsten Merge a Success, but $ETH Continues to Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>tl;dr Summary: <\/em><\/strong><em>Ethereum\u2019s Ropsten testnet successfully completed its merge this week, in a major positive milestone for Ethereum\u2019s upcoming transition to proof-of-stake. Just days later, $ETH price fell over 10% in just 24 hours, as developers agreed to delay Ethereum\u2019s \u2018difficulty bomb\u2019 on the same day that inflation figures hit a 40-year high.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Ropsten network just merged! <br><br>One of the last testnets until we merge on the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Ethereum?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Ethereum<\/a> mainnet\ud83d\udc3c<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3lvlUfcAT4\">https:\/\/t.co\/3lvlUfcAT4<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/knd1IBlD8A\">pic.twitter.com\/knd1IBlD8A<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bitfly (@etherchain_org) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/etherchain_org\/status\/1534568254508875778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethereum\u2019s highly anticipated transition from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XLcWy1uV8YM\"> proof of work<\/a> to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x83EVUZ_EWo&amp;t=3s\"> proof of stake<\/a>, known as the merge, continues to grow ever closer. On June 3<sup>rd<\/sup>, it was<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ethereum.org\/2022\/05\/30\/ropsten-merge-announcement\/\"> announced<\/a> that the Ropsten testnet, Ethereum\u2019s longest standing testnet, was to undergo its merge in the upcoming days. The Ropsten merge is significant as it replicates exactly the procedure for the mainnet merge, and thus any issues uncovered could potentially cause further unwanted delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">~14% of validators had downtime at the transition<br><br>1. 9% &#8212; nimbus-team config issue, fixed with CLI change and redeploy<br>2. 1.8% &#8212; known concurrency bug in nethermind, required a reboot for some nodes<br>3. 2.5-3% &#8212; nimbus-besu web-sockets problem, swapped to use http<br><br>2\/3<\/p>&mdash; dannyryan \ud83e\uddf1\ud83d\udd25 (@dannyryan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dannyryan\/status\/1534928766022979584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 9, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On June 8<sup>th<\/sup>, at around 16:00 UTC, the terminal total difficulty<em> <\/em>(TTD) threshold was reached, triggering the chain to move to proof of stake. Fortunately, this process occurred without any major hiccups. Core developer Danny Ryan described the test merge as a \u201cmajor success.\u201d He identified that around 14% of validators suffered downtime at the transition, predominantly due to three minor glitches that were all easily ironed out. This was confirmed by fellow developer Parithosh Jayanthi in his<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/parithosh_j\/status\/1534653280147718148\"> comprehensive thread<\/a> on Ropsten\u2019s merge, which confirmed that 99% of validators were online shortly after the merge took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan stated he would be \u201cjumping for joy\u201d if the real merge went as well as Wednesday\u2019s test run. There are now only two further testnets to complete merge testing, Goerli and Sepolia. Once all testnet merges are complete, the stage is finally set for the mainnet to merge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jwo days later, June 10<sup>th<\/sup>, Ethereum\u2019s weekly<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dByC5Bw8DvU\"> Core Developers meeting<\/a> took place. The Ropsten merge was generally accepted to be a success, with any minor bugs discovered and discussed amongst the team. During the call,<a href=\"https:\/\/eips.ethereum.org\/EIPS\/eip-5133\"> EIP 5133<\/a> was discussed, a controversial proposal to delay Ethereum\u2019s difficulty bomb by 500,000 blocks\u2014around two and a half months. The proposal sparked wide ranging discussion, but was eventually agreed upon. The developers were adamant that this delay would not delay the merge, however it was interpreted by many as setting the scene for yet another merge delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The difficulty bomb is code that increases the difficulty of mining on the Ethereum network. The idea is designed to discourage mining on the network and encourage adoption of the proof of stake chain. The bomb was previously scheduled to go off this month<em>. <\/em>Although the initial effect on mining difficulty is modest, the difficulty doubles every two weeks to create an exponential slowdown, eventually causing the network to freeze. A potential activation of the difficulty bomb prior to the proof-of-stake chain being ready would create a precarious situation for Ethereum developers, with the prospect of rendering the original chain useless without a viable alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The potential negative effect of the bomb pressuring developers was acknowledged by core developer Tim Beiko during the call, explaining some of the rationale behind the delay:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cToo much pressure pushes teams to burn out, that\u2019s also a situation we don\u2019t want to be in.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>These thoughts were echoed by fellow core dev Andrew Ashikhmin during the call:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p><em>\u201cI don\u2019t think it sends a bad signal. It actually sends a good signal that we\u2019re doing the responsible thing. We don\u2019t want to rush the merge with code that is not ready. Doing nothing is irresponsible.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Beiko then revealed<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TimBeiko\/status\/1535375676848558081\"> on twitter<\/a> that he believes the<a href=\"https:\/\/beincrypto.com\/ethereum-merge-will-happen-between-august-and-november-says-developer-tim-beiko\/\"> previously stated<\/a> August-November range still remains in play, but rejected calls to be more specific, arguing that the nature of bugs etc means this is not possible, stating only:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p><em>\u201cI think for it to not happen this year, you&#8217;d need a catastrophic event\/failure\/series of normal bugs.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>News of the delay to the difficulty bomb could not have come at a worse time for $ETH holders. On the same day, the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures for May were released, and exceeded market expectations. Prices rose 8.6% in May compared to May 2021. This represents the highest year-on-year inflation figure since 1981, and unsurprisingly caused a sharp drop in the US stock market, with Wall Street suffering its<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/06\/09\/stock-market-news-open-to-close.html\"> worst week in months<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As per usual of late, the cryptocurrency markets followed Wall Street\u2019s dump, however $ETH was a stand-out for the wrong reasons, down over 10% in a 24 hour period on Saturday. The addition of<a href=\"https:\/\/cobie.substack.com\/p\/staking-pegging-and-other-stuff?s=r\"> forced selling of Ether by over-leveraged traders and CeFi institutions<\/a> lacking in liquidity may well be the factor leading to exaggerated losses for $ETH, yet with $ETH threatening to break through key support around the 2018 highs, holders will be desperately hoping for a reprieve at any cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethereum\u2019s Ropsten testnet successfully completed its merge this week, in a major positive milestone for Ethereum\u2019s upcoming transition to proof-of-stake. Just days later, $ETH price fell over 10% in just 24 hours, as developers agreed to delay Ethereum\u2019s \u2018difficulty bomb\u2019 on the same day that inflation figures hit a 40-year high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[281,1479,1482,83,1474,1478,68,1443,82,335,277,278,1442,1444,1481,1475,234,344,1476,1480,494],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/grandpascrypto.com\/ropsten-merge-a-success-but-eth-continues-to-fall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ropsten Merge a Success, but $ETH Continues to Fall - grandpascrypto.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ethereum\u2019s Ropsten testnet successfully completed its merge this week, in a major positive milestone for Ethereum\u2019s upcoming transition to proof-of-stake. 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