Ethereum (ETH) Price Up 6%, Bellatrix Hard Fork Happens Today in Preparation For the Merge

  • The Ethereum (ETH) network is arguably one of the most heavily regulated cryptocurrencies in the world.
  • The Bellatrix hard fork is meant to prepare all node operators on the Ethereum network for the September Merge event.
  • With the Bellatrix hard fork, validators can start producing updated Beacon Blocks. 

The Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem is set to make its final steps towards transitioning to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm through the Bellatrix hard fork. Scheduled to take place today, September 6, 2022, at around 11:34:47 am UTC. The upgrade is due for epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain.

Following the announcement by Ethereum lead developers including Tim Beiko and Vitalik Buterin, Eth price has gained approximately 6 percent today to exchange hands at $3,561.62.

The anticipation of the Ethereum merger has, to a great extent, lifted hopes of a possible crypto market recovery in the coming months. Remember, Bitcoin is precariously hanging on the $20k support, while the entire crypto market cap hangs on $1 trillion.

As the second largest digital asset and the largest smart contract ecosystem, the cryptocurrency industry may rise in the coming months. However, questions are arising among most analysts if the Merge event has already been factored in the current prices. Furthermore, the cryptocurrency industry is heavily marred with wash trading and speculative aspects.

Closer Look at the Bellatrix Hard Fork and the Ethereum Ecosystem 

The Ethereum (ETH) network is arguably one of the most heavily regulated cryptocurrencies in the world. Remember, the Ethereum network is host to hundreds of smaller DeFi projects that interact with users on a day-to-day basis.

However, the Ethereum network still has insane high transaction fees, compared to other smart contract ecosystems like Cardano, Binance, or Solana. As such, the Ethereum developers have been developing a safer, faster, and cheaper alternative to the current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus.

The Bellatrix hard fork is meant to prepare all node operators on the Ethereum network for the September Merge event.

Presently, each Ethereum node is represented on two different layers, the mainnet proof-of-work layer and the consensus layer (C layer). With the Merge, the two layers combined.

Notably, with the Bellatrix hard fork, validators can start producing updated Beacon Blocks. Already, 14,250,157 ETH units have been staked, by a total of 421,509 validators. Remember, it takes one 32 units of ETH to become a validator. 

After the Merge event takes place, the Ethereum developers will be looking at the sharding upgrade. 

Notably, sharding is a multi-phase upgrade to improve Ethereum’s scalability and capacity.

Per the documentation, sharding provides secure distribution of data storage requirements, thereby enabling rollups to be even cheaper. 

Additionally, it enables layer 2 solutions to offer low transaction fees while leveraging the security of Ethereum.

Takeaway Points

The ETH network has a market capitalization of approximately $200 billion with the past 24-hour traded volume at around $16 billion. With 122,262,042 units of ETH in circulating supply, the Ethereum network takes pride in the market dominance of approximately 19.10 percent.

Rebecca Davidson Verified

Rebecca is a Senior Staff Writer at BitcoinWisdom, working hard to bring you the latest breaking news in the cryptocurrency market. In the words of Elon Musk “Buy stock in several companies that make products & services that *you* believe in. Only sell if you think their products & services are trending worse. Don’t panic when the market does. This will serve you well in the long-term.”

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