ETH Ropsten Testnet Will Test “The Merge” Next

Ethereum’s switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-take has been dubbed “The Merge” and has been in the works for the past few years. In recent months, testing has been heavy in preparation for the drastic change to its blockchain. The latest update in this process was discovered through developer activity on Github.

Ethereum’s Ropsten network is one of the most popular and most used Ethereum test networks. Developers working with smart contracts/solidity test their work first on a test network (testnet) such as Ropsten, Rinkeby, Kovan, and Goerli. Testnets allow developers to upload smart contracts to the test blockchain using test ETH, which holds no value and can only be used on the test networks. Test currencies are provided by Faucets: Webpages that allow users to input their testnet addresses to receive test currency. This is useful since publishing and interacting with smart contracts requires paying ETH gas fees, which can fluctuate greatly (because of the ranging gas fees and due to the size of the contract).
Example Rinkeby testnet faucet: https://faucet.rinkeby.io/. This faucet requires the user to tweet or post their test ETH addresses on twitter or facebook then paste the post link into the faucet to request funds.

The test merge on the Ropsten testnet is expected early to mid June according to crypto twitter feeds.

Updated 05/20/2022 @ 9 PM EST.

High level ETH developers have given a soft confirmation on expecting The Merge in August 2022. ETH co-founder Vitalik Buterin is estimating for a September/October release. ETH developers, in anticipation for The Merge, created a difficulty bomb in 2016 that is to take place August 2022. The purpose of the difficulty bomb is to encourage miners to switch to the proof-of-stake model once The Merge is implemented. This has been delayed multiple times along with The Merge itself.