According to data from Ethernodes, up to 73.5% of Ethereum Nodes are ready for The Merge event before the Bellatrix upgrade for Ethereum takes place on September 6.
Upgrading Bellatrix is considered one of the last necessary steps before the official The Merge event.
To be ready for consolidation, Ethereum node operators must comply with the Bellatrix upgrade by updating their nodes prior to the 144896 stage on the Beacon chain. This phase is scheduled to take place at 11:34:47 am UTC on 6 September 2022.
However, with 26.7% of nodes not ready for The Merge, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and core developer Tim Beiko have urged the remaining node operators to update their nodes.
Bellatrix is tomorrow 📆 Last chance to upgrade your node if you haven’t yet!
We’re mergiiiing 🐼 https://t.co/0VQ9zb6wjN
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🐼 (@TimBeiko) September 5, 2022
According to the Ethereum Foundation, node operators not making updates prior to the Bellatrix upgrade will cause them to synchronize with the pre-fork blockchain,” warning:
“[Node operators] will be stuck on an incompatible chain under the old rules and will not be able to send Ether or operate on the Ethereum network after The Merge.”
According to Ethernodes, most “not ready” nodes are found on the Geth node, which has yet to upgrade to Geth v1.10.23 or higher.
Other Ethereum nodes that require updates include Erigon, Besu, and Nethermind. Ethereum nodes that are required to validate new blocks can run the new Ethereum software, which differs in programming language and code base.
All of my validators are merge ready 🐼
— sassal.eth 🦇🔊🐼 (@sassal0x) September 6, 2022
Following the Bellatrix upgrade, the final phase of The Ethereum Merge will be completed during the “Paris event” when the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) reaches 58750000000000000000000.
When the execution layer exceeds this TTD, the next block will be generated by the Beacon Chain validator. The completion of this block will mark the complete transition of the Ethereum blockchain to a PoS mechanism.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum users don’t need to do anything with their ETH and Ethereum-based assets during The Merge. However, they should still be on the lookout for other scams.
