Today is the scheduled day for the Bellatrix upgrade, which begins the final countdown to the Merge. It will essentially start the remainder of the Merge procedure, which won’t take long.
In anticipation of the last upgrade before the Ethereum network switches to proof of stake, the price has also reacted.
As the Merge draws closer, Ether’s (ETH) sentiment has turned positive after struggling against strong market headwinds. The second-largest cryptocurrency was trading above $1,665 after rising by almost 7% in the previous day (on Binance).
The Bellatrix upgrade is a necessary step before the eagerly anticipated Merge, which denotes the switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
The Beacon Chain’s epoch 144896 must be reached before the node operators can update their clients.
The Bellatrix upgrade is scheduled for September 6 at 11:34:47 UTC, and the Merge is anticipated to take place between September 13 and September 15. This information was previously disclosed by the Ethereum Foundation.
According to data from Ethernodes, 72.9% of nodes have been designated as “Ready” for the Merge, while the remaining 27.1% are still “Not-Ready.”
Incompatible chains with the previous set of rules will remain active if the node operators don’t update their Ethereum clients before the Bellatrix upgrade.
Additionally, they won’t be able to use the post-merger Ethereum network or send Ether.
The node administrators have been urged by Ethereum developers to update their clients. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder, also advocated for it on Twitter.
