First-Ever Shadow Fork Happens on Ethereum

Ethereum (ETH), the second most popular cryptocurrency, inches close to The Merge, i.e., a seamless migration from Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) one.

First mainnet fork ever takes place on Ethereum (ETH): developer

Seasoned Ethereum (ETH) researcher and developer Marius van der Wijden has taken to Twitter to share that the unusual fork takes place today on April 11, 2022.

We're very close to a historical event. We're testing PoS on #Ethereum. Today will be the first mainnet shadow fork ever. We're roughly 690 blocks (~2 h) away from TTD. Follow here: https://t.co/T20ZMgApYw or https://t.co/Uod8WBsqtw
Huge props to @parithosh_j! #TestingTheMerge pic.twitter.com/M8ZcHnKqaL

— MariusVanDerWijden (@vdWijden) April 11, 2022

For the first time ever, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanisms are stress tested on Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. As explained by Ethereum (ETH) veteran Parithosh Jayanthi, previously, Ethereum Goerli testnet came through a similar procedure three times.

"Shadow fork" requires interaction with Beacon Chain infrastructure; its mechanisms will be relaunched several times. Its configurations will be of crucial importance for the next phase of Ethereum (ETH) progress, as:

[It] would dictate optimizations needed in the run up to the merge.

Technically, "shadow fork" is authorized in parallel with the "regular" Ethereum (ETH) mainnet and does not affect its operations in any meaningful manner.

Dress rehearsal before The Merge

Ethereum (ETH) developers stressed that this is a revolutionary event: newbie Ethereans are not recommended to join the process.

As covered by U.Today previously, Ethereum (ETH) network is getting through its latest pre-Merge testnet, dubbed Kiln. It is set to let EF experiment with all configurations required to move Ethereum (ETH) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

Recently, Ethereum (ETH) developers also released the agenda of Shanghai, the next hardfork for the first smart contracts platform. It is designed to optimize the performance and resource-efficiency of Ethereum's L2s.