Key Takeaways
- Ethereum to upgrade small testnets for smooth ‘Merge’
- Sepolia is the first testnet to get a proof of stake chain upgrade
- Sepolia was upgraded on the Execution Layer, clients could not connect to the chain
An overview of Sepolia Testnet Upgrade
Devops at the Ethereum Foundation are working on the upgrades for a successful merge from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake. For a smooth transition it is essential to make sure there is no crease in the merge. The Sepolia testnet was scheduled for an upgrade on August 17, 2022 but was delayed by four days and was later slated to August 22, 2022.
The Ethereum Merge upgrade is designed to make the transition to Proof of Stake smooth and is not intended to make any difference to the client side or the user side.
In a series of testnet upgrades from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, various network branches have run through the Ethereum merge to test for any loopholes or technical issues that may occur. Sepolia testnet upgrade to Beacon chain was completed on July 6, 2022.
The updates on Sepolia testnet
Sepolia testnet was tested on the Execution Layer (EL) on block number 1,735,371. This resulted in clients having to disconnect from other peers on the network which is essential for the Proof of Stake chain to work. The developers noted that the upgrade will not add any functionality to the network in particular.
Parithosh Jayanthi, DevOps engineer, Ethereum Foundation, commented
“The upgrade is there just to clear up any dead nodes in the system. This is sort of a cleanup, and we wouldn’t really expect to see any change.”
He also mentioned that this was a routine for every program that they were testing on the network before giving it a green flag.
Another week, another testnet upgrade 😁
Sepolia, which merged a few weeks ago, now needs to undergo a simple post-merge upgrade to disconnect non-PoS peers. The upgrade is scheduled for August 17, and only ELs need to be updated. More info here 👇🏻https://t.co/4HwxundyTG
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🐼 (@TimBeiko) August 3, 2022
Making Eth2 a robust and productive blockchain
Developers working on the Ethereum Merge have identified networks within Ethereum that have deprecated. The Ropsten network was not upgraded for the same reason. On the All Developers Call, the team discussed omitting the upgrade on Klin testnet as well since most of the users have already transitioned to Goerli network. Goerli will have another upgrade post the mainnet transition of Ethereum.
Additional Read: Ethereum Goerli Testnet Live
Alex Stokes, Researcher, Ethereum Foundation told CoinDesk,“The upgrade isn’t that significant but it can be used as an identifier to help with peer discovery, or finding other nodes in the network.”.
Source: CoinDesk