Ethereum has sucessfully accomplished its second-to-last major Sepolia testnet Merge trial

Merge trials on testnets are indispensable to allow Ethereum developers and autonomous project developers to comprehend what they can expect when the actual Merge takes place.

Ethereum has now accomplished its second-to-last major Merge trial on the community test network Sepolia, paving the way for its evolution to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Though it was not incident-free, yet judged mostly as a success.

The ultimate experiment of the Merge is set to happen on the Goerli network over the next few weeks before the official Merge on the Ethereum mainnet can be given permission.

Ethereum instructor Anthony Sassano, who introduced the Sepolia Merge livestream on YouTube on July 6, confirmed on Twitter that the Merge transition went through “successfully” and added that testnet will be observed over the next few days.

Terence Tsao, an Ethereum protocol developer also said the Merge conversion itself had been a success but claimed around 25-30% of validators went offline after the Merge due to “wrong configs.” Though, he added that “hiccups will not delay the Merge.”

A founding member of the ETHStaker Community, Superphiz warned throughout the stream yet that the actual success of the Merge won’t be known “for several hours or even until tomorrow.”

The final trial will ensue on the Goerli test network. Superphiz added that the effectiveness of the Merge will depend on the assessments of the Sepolia test.

The testnet Merges are a form of “dress rehearsal” that is indispensable to allow Ethereum developers and independent project developers to understand what they can expect when the actual Merge takes place.

During the live stream, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin acknowledged that one of the challenges facing the main network Merge will comprise “much more third-party infrastructure that isn’t present on the testnets.”

Despite the news, Santiment has warned of a potential ETH sell-off with total ETH supply on exchanges accomplishing a new high of 13.8% on July 4, the highest since January 3, 2022.

As of July 7, the percentage has deteriorated slightly with around 13.25% of the total ETH supply sitting on exchanges.