The Bellatrix update is the last major update before the Ethereum merger, which changes the network’s consensus mechanism to proof of stake.
The Bellatrix update that prepares Ethereum to connect was successfully completed on Tuesday. However, there were concerns about pack speeds, with nearly one in ten missing the last 600 slots.
Bellatrix’s update brought the number of Ethereum consensus layer clients at epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain ahead of the next merge scheduled for next week.
However, according to Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann, 5% of validators were disabled during the hard fork, resulting in a 9% block loss. This has led some observers to question the network’s readiness for a major shift to proof of stake (PoS).
Köppelmann added that the 9% figure was 1700% higher than the historical missed block rate of 0.5%. This problem may be due to the 25.6% of clients that Ethernodes shows as “not ready” for The Merge.
Partner of Cinneamhain Ventures Adam Cochran said he hopes to break the “big spike” in missed blocks before the Merge proper, adding that “we really don’t want to be seeing unexpected issues at this late stage.”
But, not everyone is concerned. Anthony Sassano, founder of the Daily Gwei said that only 5 % of validators falling off the network was actually an “an amazing result” and assuredly stated “there’s not actually much that can go catastrophically wrong.” with the Merge:
“I would say that the ‘worst case scenario’ would be if the chain just halts because the switchover from PoW to PoS didn’t work at all – this would then require some sort of coordinated human intervention to fix.”
The Bellatrix update is one of the final steps before the merger, allowing Ethereum Consensus Layer clients to execute transactions on the Beacon Chain.
The Ethereum Merge will transition the network to a PoS consensus mechanism, which should make the network more efficient and secure.
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