Ethereum Merge Begins With Bellatrix Upgrade Ahead of September Completion
The Ethereum blockchain officially starts its transition to proof-of-stake following the activation of the Bellatrix upgrade. The full merge is expected to occur between September 13 and 16, drastically reducing the network's energy consumption.
The Ethereum blockchain officially starts its long-awaited transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake as the Bellatrix upgrade activates. This final hard fork prepares the network's PoS Beacon Chain to merge with the mainnet Execution layer. Ethereum developers expect the full transition to finish sometime between September 13 and September 16.
The network relies on a specific metric called Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) to trigger the actual merge. This TTD value is set at 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000, and miners will reach this cumulative difficulty threshold in the coming days. Once hit, the system automatically combines the two layers and permanently stops traditional mining.
This historic shift brings massive environmental benefits by cutting the network's energy usage by 99.95 percent. The Ethereum Foundation notes that completing this merge ends the blockchain's energy-intensive proof-of-work chapter and sets the stage for future infrastructure improvements like lower fees and faster transactions.