Ethereum Developer Calls for the Community to Test the Merge

 

An Ethereum (ETH) developer has called onto the community to help test the so-called Merge – Ethereum mainnet “merging” with the beacon chain proof-of-stake (PoS) system – and the new program’s start seems to have been a success.

“Ethereum needs you to test the Merge,” urged the meme accompanying the post by developer Marius van der Wijden, in which he announced this new program.

Testing is the best way to contribute to #Ethereum. We are starting a new program to get the community involved in testing the merge.

If you want to do your part in getting Ethereum to Proof of Stake as soon as possible and save the environment, #dm me pic.twitter.com/WIxpRBIDPB

— MariusVanDerWijden (@vdWijden) November 29, 2021

The developer noted soon after the call was published on November 29 that the “program start out great already, we have over 150 participants. And first docs have been written already!”

Per the published structure document, the program should be “pretty self-guided,” and it is not compensated. People can decide on how much time and effort they want to dedicate to it, while “every little bit helps.”

Three tracks are presented to serve as an easier starter point, though they don’t have to be followed:

• Users: non-technical people could do tasks such as setting up a consensus and an execution layer client, reporting unclear points and failures, writing documentation, etc.
• Technical: people with a technical background not primarily in Ethereum/blockchain could deposit into the deposit contract, run their own validator, deploy and test contracts, set up their own testnets, etc.
• Highly technical: people with a highly technical background in blockchain could review the codes and specs, write tools to visualize the merge and show forks, propose invalid blocks, etc.

“A great first step is to startup a node and join the testnet, preliminary documentation for that is here,” Wijden said.

Participants should document their work as they go and share it online, while Wijden also urged them to join the Ethereum R&D Discord channel, used by the Core Developers to discuss technical matters.

As reported, the Merge is expected to happen in May or June next year. The necessary code could be completed by February.

At 10:37 UTC, ETH is trading at USD 4,727. It’s up 6% in the past 24 hours and almost 9% in the past week. 

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Learn more:
– Ethereum Merge Estimated in May-June 2022 – Developers
– Ethereum 2.0’s Phase 0 Goes Live ‘Successfully’, ETH Drops

– Vitalik Buterin Proposes New EIP to Tackle Ethereum’s Sky-High Gas Fees
– Ethereum Gas Fees Highest During US Business Hours, Coin Metrics Finds