The Ethereum development team has completed the Kintsugi public testnet, set to check for the latest blockchain algorithms as a part of switching from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus.
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With the switch Ether mining will be based on deposits and become environmentally friendly.The announcement published on the Ethereum Foundation blog by representative of the network, Tim Beiko, encourages projects to start testing on Kintsugi to discover any possible flaws sooner. The paper says with the testnet it becomes possible for the community to try Ethereum’s post merge version. With the merge, Ethereum's present mainnet will join the Beacon chain. The team released the Beacon chain last December. When the feedback stage ends, the closing series of tests will be released. At the same time, resting efforts will grow.
Ethereum has already undergone 2 hardforks as a part of changing: Berlin in April and London in July.
Ether 2.0 is planned to launch sometime in 2022. The date depends on the processes and isn’t defined yet. Currently, Ether trades at around $4.000. In the last 24 hours, the price increased by 3.9%.Ether hit its all-time high of $4,891.70 on November 16, 2021. The market dominance index of the largest altcoin is 21.08%. Its market cap is over $475.4 bln.