Parithosh Jayanthi, a DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, submitted a pull request for Ropsten configuration code on GitHub on Monday, which means that it’s ready to be implemented. The genesis version of the consensus layer is scheduled to be created on May 30, and the full testnet merge is set for June 8.
“Merging Ropsten is a huge testing milestone towards Ethereum's mainnet merge later this year,” tweeted Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon. Since Ropsten has a similar network structure, it will serve as the most precise replication of the Ethereum mainnet.
As the proof-of-stake transition approaches, the Ethereum Foundation increased the rewards of its Bug Bounty Program. The maximum reward is now $250,000 paid in ETH or DAI for vulnerabilities in scope. Additionally, it’s doubled to $500,000 for mainnet-targeted upgrades that are live on public testnets.
The long-awaited Merge will lead to a 99.95% energy reduction, but the exact date is to be announced yet. Initially, it was expected to take place in June, but later developers announced that it’s a few months away. However, the Merge isn’t the final upgrade – the final part called Sharding is due in 2023 and it will address the problem of high gas fees.
The Merge is expected to turn Ethereum into a deflationary asset. ETH locked by validators combined with lower rewards is likely to reduce the circulating supply to between 27.3 and 49.5 million ETH, compared to the current 118 million.
