What is it
Goerli is a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) Ethereum testnet used for folks wanting to test various aspects of Ethereum before rolling out on Mainnet. Prater is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) testnet that is used for testing Beacon Chain functionality, such as running a validator.
The merge represents the joining of Goerli and Prater, with Prater ‘taking the reins’ in terms of block proposal and consensus post merge. The Goerli/Prater merge happened on August 11th around 1.45 am UTC (you can watch a replay of the stream here).
Why is it important?
Depending on the success of the Goerli/Prater merge, the next merge will be Mainnet. The Goerli/Prater merge is the third and final of the testnet merges, the other two having been Ropsten (which happened on June 9th), and Sepolia (July 7th). If the core devs are reasonably comfortable with results, Mainnet merge could be scheduled as early as mid- to late September.
Beyond being the last major hurdle before the Mainnet merge, the Goerli merge gives Ethereum developers important information and potential bugs to solve before the main event.
How did it go?
Seen from a high level, the merge between Goerli/Prater was successful. Finalization was reached after some delay.
That said, validator participation did drop from about 90% to 70% immediately following the Goerli/Prater merge. This was related to incorrect configurations on a few clients (Nimbus and Lodestar). Once these issues were resolved participation jumped up to between 81% to 84%.
One peculiarity of the Goerli/Prater merge was that there were initially two terminal blocks. This was caused by an execution layer (EL) client incorrectly invalidating the canonical chain transition block and the consensus layer (CL) client proposing on its own chain head as the last pre-merge beacon block, thereby creating an additional transition block (for more see here). Although this is peculiar, the network did recover correctly and, more importantly, the team is aware of the issue and will do further testing here.
Wen Merge?
During the Consensus Layer call the Core Devs set a tentative date for the Bellatrix upgrade of September 6th and a target for terminal total difficult (TTD) of around September 13-15th.
These dates are tentative, but importantly they imply that the core devs were reasonably satisfied with the Goerli/Prater merge; at least enough to avoid pushing back the merge of Mainnet.
What does this mean for Figment?
Figment is readying itself for the merge by testing along with the Ethereum community. This means not only testing out setup through the merge on Goerli/Prater for example, but testing newer aspects to the process such as MEV-Boost. For more on Figment’s MEV policy see here.
