Ethereum Needs to Pass These Three Tests Before Migrating to PoS

cryptonews.com:

The path to fully transitioning from the current Ethereum (ETH) Mainnet to the beacon chain proof-of-stake (PoS) system, a process also referred to as The Merge, is now clearly in sight, according to Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko.

In a recent blog post, Beiko detailed the steps that need to happen before the world's second-largest project migrates to PoS. 

In the first place, Ethereum needs to have a "few mainnet Shadow Forks without issues." As reported, Ethereum developers implemented the first-ever shadow fork in early April, which was designed to stress-test developers' assumptions on existing testnets and the mainnet.

Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden, who initially came up with the shadow fork idea, called the first shadow fork "a huge success." However, he also noted that there were some severe problems.

For instance, Nethermind, an Ethereum-based software systems provider, and Hyperledger Besu, a Java-based open-source Ethereum client, stopped at the transition. There was also an issue with the default gas limit.

While there were certain issues with the first shadow fork, "the second mainnet shadow fork (MSF2) went almost perfectly," Beiko said, adding that. 

If MSF3, another upcoming shadow fork, "happens without issues and remains stable afterwards, we could move towards upgrading existing testnets."

Once the network passes a few shadow forks without issues, it would be time for Ethereum clients -- softwares needed to allow Ethereum nodes to read blocks on the Ethereum blockchain and Ethereum-based smart contracts -- to pass the various merge test suites.

The first test suite is called Hive, which could help test the new Engine Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that different clients use to