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ETH ‘supply shock’? Devs signal crucial Ethereum update in August ETH ‘supply shock’? Devs signal crucial Ethereum update in August
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ETH ‘supply shock’? Devs signal crucial Ethereum update in August

The upcoming ‘London’ upgrade is the precursor to EIP-1559, the much-awaited move to staking.

ETH ‘supply shock’? Devs signal crucial Ethereum update in August

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.

Ethereum developer Tim Beiko has signaled an early August launch for the protocol’s ‘London’ upgrade, an official proposal on GitHub shows.

“This pull request proposes block 12965000 for the mainnet activation of the London network upgrade. The ETA for this block should be between 13:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC on August 4, 2021,” Beiko wrote, adding:

“If we can roughly hit that timeline, then August 4th should provide enough time to advertise the client releases that are mainnet compatible, and allow infrastructure providers & node operators to upgrade.”

London, supply, and Ethereum

The ‘London’ upgrade is a step towards transitioning Ethereum from its current ‘proof-of-work’ consensus design to a ‘proof-of-staking’ one. The latter relies on community users staking their ETH on nodes, which in turn ‘validate’ transactions and provide security to the network.

The move is one of the most anticipated features for Ethereum. It would see benefits like faster transactions, lower fees, and better security.

In addition, ETH is continually ‘reduced’ as more ETH is ‘staked’ on the network. This adds to market dynamics (lesser supply and constant/increasing demand) and may result in higher ETH prices for investors and holders.

The genesis for ‘ETH 2.0,’ as it is termed, went live last year and is already holding over 6 million ETH ($13 billion at press time). 

Meanwhile, the upgrade is all set for August 4, Beiko pointed out in a tweet. But that’s until no one raises an issue otherwise. “Yep, unless someone objects in the next 24h, London should land on August 4th,” he said. “Keep an eye out.”