Cody McGrath 
Following the success of the Sepolia testnet merge, Ethereum had a price increase in the last 24 hours, as it moves closer to the mainnet merge.
On July 6, Ethereum developers completed The Merge on the Sepolia testnet, bringing the Ethereum network one step closer to becoming a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network.
The news cheered Ether (ETH) investors, as the ETH price has risen 5% in the last 24 hours and is now trading at $1,170. Earlier this week, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency experienced significant selling pressure.
However, this encouraging outcome has given investors renewed hope. Sepolia’s proof-of-work chain, also known as the execution layer, combined with the proof-of-stake beacon chain, also known as the consensus layer, during yesterday’s event.
Anthony Sassano, an Ethereum educator, validated The Merge’s success on the Sepolia testnet. He also stated that it paves the way for The Merge to be implemented on the Goerli testnet. Sassal wrote on his Twitter:
“Thanks to everyone who watched the Sepolia merge Livestream!! The Sepolia merge transition went through successfully (and the chain was finalized!) so now it’s time for monitoring over the next few days. Then we merge Goerli… …then mainnet. The Merge is coming.”
The move to a Proof-of-Stake mechanism in ETH 2.0 has been delayed in the past. The Ethereum mainnet switch is currently scheduled for the end of the year.
There have been several issues with The Sepolia testnet Merge. Terence Tsao, an Ethereum protocol developer, hailed the Merge a “success.” He also stated that 25-30% of validators went offline following the Merge due to “wrong configs.” Later, he described them as minor “hiccups” that will not cause the mainnet Merge to be delayed anymore.
These testnet Merges essentially serve as a “dress rehearsal” for Ethereum developers, giving them a good sense of the issues they might expect during the mainnet Merge. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, mentioned some issues with the main network Merge during yesterday’s live stream.
The mainnet Merge, for example, will incorporate third-party infrastructure that is currently unavailable on the testnets. Buterin stated, “
“So there might be non-critical issues like that that will just pop up in the Merge that we’re not catching with these tests […] There’s a lot of peripherals that are just not getting tested and that’s unavoidable and probably fine.”