The assumption that Ethereum will transition to a fully functional Proof-of-Stake (PoS) type of network after The Merge somewhat ignores the risk and effort required for an asset with a market capitalization of $193 billion dollars and 400 decentralized applications ( DApps).
This is precisely why monitoring critical network conditions is essential for anyone willing to trade in the event. Merger scheduled for September 14th according to ethernodes.org. More importantly, traders should be ready to see any alarming developments in case things go awry.
In addition to the total $34.2 billion value locked in smart contracts, Beacon Chain has $5.3 billion of ether at stake. The network is currently being used by many tokens, oracle providers, stablecoins, layer 2 scaling solutions, synthetic assets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and cross-chain bridges.
This partly explains why The Merge has been postponed so many times over the years and why it is considered the biggest upgrade in the network’s history.
That’s why three different test nets have been submitted to The Merge, the latest being Goerli’s on August 11th. Curiously, minor issues were shown for all testnet implementations, including Ropsten and Sepolia. For example, Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden noted that “two different terminal blocks and many non-updating nodes” slowed down the process a bit.
Blocks are the core of any blockchain network
The consensus mechanism is different. Each blockchain is based on the proposal and validation of new blocks. There are established parameters for blocks, which must be adhered to in order for network participants to take account.
In the case of the Ethereum upgrade, a time is a grouping of up to 32 blocks that must be attested within six and a half minutes. It is important to actively monitor the ETH2 Beacon Chain Mainnet from reputable sources such as Etherscan’s BeaconScan and Redot’s Ethscan ETH2 Explorer.
Red flags on this monitor would be low turnout in the periods, lack of finality after thirteen minutes (2 periods), or stopping the grind on the recommended blocks.
Monitoring API Ethereum 2.0 Infura
Infura provides infrastructure for building decentralized applications, allowing developers to deploy their solutions without hosting their own full Ethereum node. The company is fully owned by the Ethereum venture capital group ConsenSys, which is controlled by Joseph Lubin.
According to Infura’s website, projects that rely on its infrastructure include Uniswap, Compound, Maker, Gnosis, Brave, Decentraland, and Web3 wallet provider Metamask.
Therefore, Infura’s API monitoring is a good starting point to evaluate the performance of Dapps. Also, its status page should reliably show real-time updates, considering that Infura is firmly connected to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Also read: ETH Merge Upgrade: CoinGecko Co-Founder Shares His Strategy for Forked Tokens
Cutting back, are collectors penalized?
Ethereum’s upgradeable consensus mechanism incorporates penalty rules designed to prevent attacks. Any collector who deliberately misbehaves is disallowed, which means that part of their share of 32 ether is taken away. If the sanction is repeated, the validator will be expelled from the network. Stack providers and validation software have built-in protection to prevent someone from being accidentally kicked out, for example, if their connection is left.
Traders should understand that slashing is a standard network action, a defensive measure. Therefore, it should not immediately be considered unfavorable. It would be worrying if hundreds of validations were blocked at the same time, which could indicate that their software is not working as it should.
There are over 410,000 active validators, so even if 20 or 30% of them went offline, the network would continue to operate as expected. Monitoring for slashes is a preventative measure as it likely indicates that a service, such as a hosting provider, went offline or there appeared to be an incompatibility during the upgrade.
Ethereum proponents should consider monitoring external data other than their own node and server. There can be delays or even false red flags, and using multiple sources of information can help avoid data from a single website or message on social networks.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthor and those do not necessarily represent Cointelegraph. All investment and trading involves risk. You should do your own research before making a decision.
