One of Ethereum’s core developers, Tim Beiko revealed that the much-expected upgrade will probably take place several months later after June.
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He tweeted about this after the team carried out a major test on April 11. In particular, devs had released a shadow fork to test the software. Beiko wrote that although the exact date of the launch isn't known, the Proof of Work mining on Ethereum now is in its last chapter. PoW is a way through which the network completes operations using energy to solve mathematical puzzles.
It won't be June, but likely in the few months after. No firm date yet, but we're definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🔥🧱 (@TimBeiko) April 12, 2022
Due to the upgrade, Ethereum will switch to Proof-of-Stake, which requires users to lock their crypto assets to become validators. The Merge aims to boost network efficiency and provide environmentally-friendly transactions.
The Merge is the 2nd phase of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade. The first one called the Beacon Chain went live on Dec. 1, 2020. It is a separate blockchain from Ethereum that will serve as a consensus layer.The final phase, sharding, will follow The Merge. The full upgrade is supposed to end by 2023.
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Data from Beacon Chain Explorer show that currently the number of staked Ethers in the Eth 2.0 staking contract is almost 11 million.