As POS testing continues, in a first for the network, Ethereum Developers implement “shadow fork.”
The Ethereum Foundation has moved closer to introducing Ethereum 2.0. In the interim, the developers were working towards implementing the Shadow Fork to ensure that the testnet closely resembles the mainnet. On Monday, Ethereum developers implemented the network’s first-ever “shadow fork,” a significant step forward in the ongoing transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
The shadow fork allows developers to put their ideas about the network’s complicated migration to PoS to the test. The term “shadow fork” refers to the copying of data from a mainnet network, in this case, the Ethereum blockchain, to a testnet, where developers can test features before deploying their work to the main network. By doing so, Ethereum engineers have created a test environment that is more similar to the mainnet, which processes over 1 billion transactions every day.
One must note that the implementation of the shadow fork does not affect the existing mainnet and is intended for testing the next phase of Ethereum’s configuration.
Paritosh Jayanthi, an Ethereum DevOps Professional, announced on Twitter over the weekend that the team has completed three shadow forks of the Goerli testnet, discovering “bugs varying from sync code to request timeout” in the process. In the same thread, he stated that “The aim of the Kiln merge testnet was to allow the community to practice running their nodes, deploying contracts, testing infrastructure, etc.”
Positive developments in the wake of the merger have fueled an increasingly bullish narrative for Ethereum, allowing the price of Ether (ETH) to break a months-long downturn. While ETH and the crypto market are reeling from yet another downfall, the potential of earning passive returns on the Ethereum network has piqued investors’ curiosity.
