In a Twitter conversation between Ethereum developer and researcher Bed Edgington and core developer Tim Beiko, it was revealed that the highly-anticipated "merge" could likely happen between August to November.
“If we found 0 more bugs, we can probably merge in a couple months. I just don’t think that’s realistic. Also don’t think it’s likely we will find 10, or even 5?, more severe issues. Confidence shrinks exponentially within that range, though,” Beiko added in his reply.
However, Edgington does not seem pleased with the estimate, which he claimed is “way too rough” for any planning.
Just a few days ago, Ethereum’s Ropsten public testnet, which allows for blockchain development testing before deployment on the mainnet, went through "the Merge". This followed the launch of its beacon chain on May 30.
The Merge is the most significant upgrade in Ethereum’s history. The transition to Proof-of-Stake consensus will usher in a 99% reduction in the network’s energy consumption alongside a 90% drop in ETH issuance to validators.
Combined with base transaction fees being burned since the introduction of EIP-1559 last August, the upgrade is expected to result in more ETH being destroyed than created, making Ether (ETH) increasingly scarce over time.