Altair has arrived; the Merge is approaching.
tl;dr
Altair upgrade, October 27
Altair, the inaugural mainnet enhancement to the Beacon Chain, has been set for epoch 74240 (October 27, 2021, 10:56:23am UTC).
A slight but significant benefit of proof-of-stake is that we can accurately schedule upgrades (Apologies, Tim! We’ll complete proof-of-work shortly 😉)
This enhancement introduces light-client support to the main consensus, streamlines beacon state incentive accounting, resolves some validator incentive issues, and enhances the punitive parameters according to EIP-2982.
A massive thanks to client teams for their dedication on this throughout the year 🙌
Be sure to watch for another blogpost on Monday, October 4th. This will reveal all mainnet Altair releases.
Then you will be able to upgrade your nodes!
Merge interop specifications and upcoming devnets
The Merge Interop specification was launched on Friday. This “meta-spec” offers consistent targets for engineers for an initial round of testing and devnets.
Following a surge of specification activity in recent months, Merge specifications are nearly feature-complete, and the core logic is stable. During this next stage, engineers will implement the Merge logic and evaluate their software with other teams on temporary devnets. They will review the specifications as they currently stand and provide ongoing feedback to refine and/or address issues as they emerge.
At the forefront is to validate and enhance the Merge engine API and to prototype and detail various sync versions under the Merge model.
The transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has taken years to develop, and we share your excitement to witness it in operation. Exciting times ahead in October 🏺🚀
