ETH Inches Closer to Merger

The Ethereum Foundation has announced the launch of the Kiln Merge Testnet, which is a server to test the merger between the current Ethereum execution layer and the upcoming upgrade to the consensus layer that will introduce proof-of-stake. Ethereum has rebranded the update from “ETH 2.0” to simply “Consensus Layer” in an effort to simplify the terms and focus on the actual changes to the network. The update will not only bring about the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining to proof-of-stake (PoS) staking methods of processing transactions, but will introduce various systems to help alleviate congestion on the network such as sharding technology.

After a week of testing, Kiln has been mostly successful in producing valid blocks but some validators have experienced errors when processing transactions.

According to the Kiln block explorer, most transactions were successful but some were showing errors regarding base gas fee values and other settings. It is important to remember that these testnet servers are made to test changes to the blockchain and to find errors such as the ones shown above. Sorting out the issues before being pushed onto the main blockchain will prevent everyday users of Ethereum from experiencing bugs and issues.

These updates come during an important milestone that ETH has achieved: over 2 million ETH has been burned since the launch of EIP-1559. Every ETH transaction since August 2021 has burned a varying amount of ETH that normally would have been paid out to miners. According to analytics platform WatchTheBurn, 2,001,708 ETH has been burned since EIP-1559, a value equal to $5,879,539,163 USD.