Summary:
- Ethereum’s upgrade to a Proof-of-Stake blockchain would see some operations halt temporarily for Coinbase users.
- The crypto exchange said new ETH deposits and withdrawals would pause during The Merge as a precautionary measure.
- A similar pause for new ERC-20 token withdrawals and deposits was also announced.
- Coinbase Prime Institutional customers might also experience delays.
- Tuesday’s update did not mention possible forked tokens or support for a Proof-of-Work ecosystem.
- The announcement comes ahead of The Merge scheduled for around September 15, 2022.
- Final test runs are happening following a successful merge on Goerli.
Coinbase released an update on Tuesday to inform users of possible delays and pauses on Ethereum transactions ahead of the Merge, ETH’s pivot from a Proof-of-Work consensus to a Proof-of-Stake chain.
The San Francisco-based crypto exchange announced that new deposits and withdrawals for ETH and ERC-20 tokens would halt temporarily during the Merge. Coinbase has decided on the pause as a precautionary measure and the platform does not “expect any other networks or currencies to be impacted”.
Also, users with Staked ETH under the ticker ETH 2 won’t be able to trade or transfer with staked tokens until Ethereum’s PoS upgrade is complete. Similar delays might be experienced by Coinbase Prime users, per the announcement.
Indeed, Tuesday’s announcement signaled full support for ETH’s PoS transition from the exchange. However, the update did not mention possible support for ETH PoW hard forked tokens.
At press time, it remains unclear if crypto exchanges plan to support forked tokens from ETH’s PoW network. The news about a hard fork broke out a few weeks ago after prominent Chinese ETH miner Chandler Guo disclosed intentions to fork the current blockchain and maintain an ecosystem where miners remain relevant.
While major crypto exchanges are yet to declare open support for this plan, Deribit and OKX suggested they would list forked tokens if they garner sufficient demand.
Ethereum’s Merge Set For September 15
Following a successful Merge on the Goerli testnet, ETH is scheduled to deploy its transition to a PoS network around September 15. The transition was previously set for September 19 but this was a tentative date subject to change, as EthereumWorldNews reported.
Notably, the anticipated Merge features two key upgrades dubbed Bellatrix and Paris. Bellatrix interacts with ETH’s Beacon Chain which features the PoS component and places the network in a state called “Merge aware”.
Finally, Paris encompasses the full transition. During the Paris upgrade, Ethereum’s mainnet switches from the PoW consensus mechanism, to the fresh PoS chain poised to power ETH’s ecosystem for the foreseeable future.
