The blockchain network Ethereum has officially activated the Bellatrix upgrade, the final change before The Merge, the highly anticipated transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). Bellatrix was successfully codified into the codebase at epoch 144,896 on the Beacon chain and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin detailed it was important for network participants to update their clients.

From Bellatrix to Paris — Ethereum Participants Get Ready for the Final Step of the Merge

The Merge is estimated to take place on September 13, 2022, according to the wenmerge.com countdown, which notes there’s a hair over seven days left until the ruleset change. On September 6, Ethereum developers implemented the Bellatrix upgrade which is the final step until The Merge happens next week.

Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin spoke about Bellatrix and The Merge date on Twitter on Tuesday. “[The Merge] is still expected to happen around Sep 13-15,” Buterin wrote. “What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which *prepares* the chain for the merge. Still important though – make sure to update your clients,” the software developer added.

Buterin also shared a tweet showing that Bellatrix was implemented and the next step will be the network’s PoS transition. The next step following Bellatrix is the Paris upgrade which essentially launches The Merge. After that point in time, ethereum (ETH) miners will no longer be able to validate transactions and reap block rewards.

Paris will execute upon hitting a Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) value on the execution layer, which will be 58750000000000000000000. The Ethereum Foundation has summarized what will happen after Paris triggers The Merge and notes that “the subsequent block will be produced by a Beacon Chain validator.” The Ethereum Foundation adds:

“The Merge transition is considered complete once the Beacon Chain finalizes this block. Under normal network conditions, this will happen 2 epochs (or ~13 minutes) after the first post-TTD block is produced.”

Since Bellatrix was added, ethereum’s price has jumped 5.7% higher against the U.S. dollar and the crypto asset has been nearing the $1,700 per unit range. So far, ETH tapped a September 6 high at $1,682.26 per unit and there’s $17.03 billion in global ETH trade volume.

Moreover, ETH dominance has elevated while BTC dominance has reduced by a few percentages. At the time of writing BTC dominance is 36.4% while ETH’s dominance is hovering around 19.2% on Tuesday.

What do you think about the completion of the Bellatrix upgrade and the upcoming Paris upgrade? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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