Ethereum soared to its highest level in two months after developers successfully completed a final test in preparation for an upgrade expected to take place next month.
The world's second largest cryptocurrency reached a price above $1,917 at the time of writing based on data from CoinMetrics. That was the highest level since early June and a 13% jump in the past 24 hours.
On Wednesday, Ethereum began the final phase of testing for the merger, which is a major event that will take place next month. One of the ethereum test networks, called Goerli, simulates a process similar to what the main network will implement in September. Testnets allow developers to test and make necessary adjustments before updates are rolled out on the main blockchain.
The merger will see the transition of the basic ether block from the P-o-W system to a more efficient model. The PoW consensus mechanism relies on crypto miners to validate transactions. The planned 'merger' has been postponed several times, now expected to take place on September 19.
Once finalized, the improvements are expected to speed up transactions on the ethereum network and make it more efficient.
On the other hand, Bitcoin has lost some ground to other tokens in recent years, with its market share falling below 40% from nearly 70% at the beginning of 2020. So it is no wonder that some believe that ethereum will become the king of crypto. But according to IT expert Kaj Burchardi the two are not in direct competition with each other.
