The Ethereum network has announced the launch of the Sepolia testnet Beacon Chain. This coincides with the planned dress rehearsal of the Beacon Chain merge as Ethereum’s developers await further insights.

After the proposed merge with the Beacon Chain, the Sepolia testnet will begin attempting to achieve consensus via the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol. 

The Proof-of-Work (PoW) is gradually phased out of the Ethereum network as the PoS protocol will provide the available data on what to expect once the Ethereum mainnet merge is complete.

However, no date was given by the Ethereum developers for the scheduled day for the merge.

Testnet Merge Critical to Ethereum’s Scaling

The Ethereum development team and other independent developers are confident about using the testnet merge for further upgrades. The use of testnet merge is used to help determine the likely outcome of a project after an initial merge has occurred.

Similarly, the Ethereum mainnet merge will move the entire network protocol to the PoS consensus. The transition to the PoS will also cut Ethereum’s energy consumption by 99.9%, which is expected due to the previous gas fees.

Sepolia, according to Ethereum developer, Tim Beiko, will replace the Ropsten testnet. The Ethereum team launched the Sepolia testnet in October 2021. As a result, projects still running on the Ropsten testnet will be moved to the Sepolia platform to avoid issues.

Sepolia and Ropsten are both public testnet is designed to make a replica of their operating mainnet without disrupting the main mainnet. In the history of Ethereum’s testnet, Ropsten is the longest-used since its launch in 2016.

In the same year, the Ropsten testnet was merged on June 8, the first merge trial on the Ethereum network.

The Wait Continue

Officially, the exact merge date for the new testnet has not been communicated, but this is not the first time the Ethereum developers will shift it. Meanwhile, the previous announcement indicates that the team will carry out the merge date for the Ethereum in August this year.

However, another delay might occur due to a possible setback on the difficulty bomb. When this is completed, it will bring forth the Consensus Layer, formerly Ethereum 2.0.

It is worthy to note that the difficulty bomb is an important part of the Ethereum network as the developers will use it to disengage ETH miners. The development would achieve this by using biological applications to increase the difficulty of producing more blocks on the Ethereum network.

In another development, the crypto market is still red, with prices of major cryptocurrencies unable to recover from the market correction. The recent market instability is worsening as the broader crypto industry continues to bleed with each passing day. As the market storm persists, Ethereum still manages to make some recovery.

Meanwhile, Ethereum appears to be inching closer to the green zone with a significant 3.53% jump in value over the last 24 hours. According to the Cointelegraph market index, ETH is trading at $1,126.