Ethereum Foundation has unveiled the Kintsugi testnet in the latest development towards Ethereum 2.0 merge set for next year.
The Foundation member, Tim Beiko, has urged developers to use the testnet to get a feel of the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and check any possible concerns.
The testnet is believed to have gone live as early as December 16, and Beiko notes that Kintsugi would be longer-lived.
The Ethereum merge would replace the current proof-of-work consensus with the proof-of-stake model and is expected to happen in the first half of 2022.
The merge would integrate the Ethereum Mainnet, which deals with transactions, and the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain focusing on staking. A successful transition would reduce the high-energy mining process.
Ethereum 2.0 went live in December 2020 with the introduction of the beacon chain. The merge is expected to add sharding, a scalability feature.
A report by ConsenSys reveals that over 8.4 million ETH are currently staked on the beacon chain.
Source: Cryptobriefing
