- Ethereum has launched its “Shadow Fork,” a tool that provides Ethereum developers with a place to test their assumptions about the mainnet merging with ETH 2.0.
- A Shadow Fork is when a certain number of nodes are set to fork from the Ethereum mainnet.
- With the Shadow Fork, the developers manage to create a test environment that is more like the mainnet, that is, closer to reality.
Ethereum Foundation takes another step towards the implementation of Ethereum 2.0 by launching the ‘Shadow Fork’, being a key milestone on the way to the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus.
A Shadow Fork provides Ethereum developers with a place to test their assumptions about the mainnet merging with ETH 2.0, that is, the transfer of the network to PoS. Let’s keep in mind that a ‘fork’ refers to a radical change in the protocol of a network that results in two branches, one that follows the previous protocol and another that follows the new version.
Hence, A Shadow Fork is when a certain number of nodes are set to fork from the Ethereum mainnet. In this way, it consists of copying data from a main network to a test network and allows testing how the update works under certain conditions.
Thus, according to Ethereum Foundation developer Parithosh Jayanthi, the first ‘Shadow Fork’ of the Ethereum mainnet was launched to “test our assumptions about timing and state growth.”
Ethereum developers do litmus tests
Basically, by inheriting the state of existing testnets, developers’ assumptions about timing and block build time can be stressed, and that is, With the Shadow Fork, the developers manage to create a test environment that is more like the mainnet, that is, it is close to reality.
It is relevant to note that according to Jayanthi, since the Shadow Fork will share some data with the Ethereum mainnet, some transactions could appear on both chains.
“The goal of the Kiln Fusion Testnet was to allow the community to practice running their nodes, deploying contracts, testing infrastructure, etc..” Jayanthi explained on Twitter.
For his part, Kiln is referring to the last testnet before the Ethereum merger happens. But, being a testnet with little activity, the developers needed to put it to the test.
For those unaware, Ethereum developers have been working on a multi-stage process to make their blockchain more scalable by moving from Proof of Work consensus to Proof of Stake. In theory, the change will reduce the amount of energy needed to run the network and make it faster.
How have the tests gone?
On April 11, Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden, who initially devised the Shadow Fork, ensured that the event had been a great success.
As of this writing, more than 4 million transactions have already been processed with an average block time of 14.4 seconds, according to the block explorer.
In this sense, Van der Wijden assured that the Shadow Fork is a “historical event”. However, this does not mean that the developers have not encountered any problems.
The purpose of the event was to test the network in a circumstance close to reality and, since it is the first time it has been done, it would be strange not to find any problems to be corrected. Jayanthi claimed to have found some issues with Nevermind and Hyperledger Besu (Ethereum-based software providers), but they are not serious.
“Nethermind and Besu stopped transitioning, but a fix is being implemented for Nethermind that allows them to sync up“, said van der wijden. “Geth and Erigon are progressing happily. All Beacon Chain customers agree”.
Also, Van der Wijden explained that the developers found another problem associated with the gas limit, but have already proposed a solution for it.
In this way, other developers like Terence Tsao they have described the event as a great success.
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