An Overview of Post-Merge Milestones for Ethereum

Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus (through a handover process referred to as “The Merge”) is slated to take place within the next week. The Merge is executed in a two-step process of sequential hard forks (Bellatrix and Paris), which take place on the proof-of-stake Beacon chain. The Bellatrix hard fork, which was completed earlier this week, introduces Merge-compatible changes in preparation for The Merge. 

For the Paris release (the actual PoW/PoS handover), a threshold for total difficulty (accumulated sum of all block difficulty), which is typically used as a most accurate indicator for the longest chain to build blocks on, will be used to signal to the Beacon Chain that block production on the proof-of-work chain has ceased as blocks continue to add to the proof-of-stake chain.