Talk of the Merge has been heating up since Ethereum core developer, Preston Van Loon, told a panel at the Permissionless conference in mid-May that the Merge could happen as early as this August. The optimistic outlook has faced some headwinds of late.
On May 25, a 7-block reorg occurred on Ethereum’s Beacon Chain, sending FUD through the community. Ethereum core developers suspected “a non-trivial segmentation of updated vs out of date client software” and hoped it would ultimately “result in a more stable chain!”.
Perhaps more detrimental news began circulating a few days later when a note updated on Ethereum.org titled, “The Risks of LSD”, which warns of the “the cartelization of block space” if Liquid Staking Derivatives, such as Lido ($stETH) and RocketPool ($rETH), don’t “self-limit to avoid centralization”. All eyes will be on the next big Merge event scheduled for June 8th, when the Ropsten testnet moves to Proof of Stake.
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