Ethereum Mainnet

BlockSec launches collaborative testing toolkit for private forked chains

With the toolkit, developers and security researchers can test, analyze and debug transactions via controlled private fork chains from the Ethereum mainnet.

Blockchain security tech firm BlockSec has launched a new toolkit that enables collaborative testing on private chains “forked from arbitrary (transaction) positions” and block numbers on the Ethereum mainnet.

The developer and security researcher-focused toolkit is dubbed the “Phalcon Fork” and launched on April 14.

Phalcon Fork aims to provide greater control over work being conducted on testnets, such as transaction testing, analysis and debugging.

In the user manual, BlockSec touts that this extra control comes from being able to easily “fork arbitrary (transaction) positions and block numbers,” and retain certain “services and states” from the Ethereum mainnet.

“Compared with traditional solutions like Goerli […], Phalcon Fork has the following advantages: retain services and states from the mainnet, facilitating rapid integration and debugging with other DeFi contracts. [And maintain] full control over block information (e.g., Timestamp, BaseFee, MixDigest),” the Phalcon Fork user manual reads.

With the toolkit, users can also utilize features such as snapshots, enabling them to save certain blockchain positions and revert back to them at will during their testing processes. The snapshots essentially record the transactions being executed and deployed by the user at a given time.

“The snapshot feature is particularly useful in the following two scenarios: When a user wants to run multiple times of a testing script, he/she just needs to revert to the original snapshot and rerun the script. [Or] When a user wants to save some states and return to them later, he/she can create a snapshot and then revert to this snapshot later,” the manual reads.

Phalcon Fork also has an integrated faucet so users can acquire free fork network Ether (ETH) to conduct transactions on the private chains.

To directly interact with the chains and execute transactions, Phalcon Fork provides a remote procedure call node called Fork RPC, which can be integrated with Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible development frameworks such as Hardhat, Foundry and Remix or added to MetaMask.

As it stands, users can only fork from the Ethereum mainnet; however, future support for additional blockchains, such as the BNB Smart Chain and Arbitrum, has been teased.

Teased blockchain support additions. Source: Twitter

April has been a significant month for Ethereum developers, given that the highly anticipated Shapella hard fork went live on the Ethereum mainnet without a hitch on April 12. A major feature of the upgrade enables Ethereum validators to withdraw staked ETH from the Beacon Chain.

Related: Less than 1% of staked ETH estimated to be sold after Shapella: Finance Redefined

The move has been met with positive price action from Ether (ETH), with the asset gaining roughly 12% since April 12, to sit at $2,092 at the time of writing.

Seven-day ETH price chart. Source: CoinGecko

Magazine: ZK-rollups are ‘the endgame’ for scaling blockchains, Polygon Miden founder

Breaking: Historic day for crypto as Ethereum Merge to proof-of-stake occurs

The Ethereum proof-of-stake consensus mechanism will cut energy consumption by a massive 99.95% compared to the proof-of-work system.

The Ethereum Merge has officially taken place, marking the full transition of the network to proof-of-stake (PoS). 

On Sept. 15 at 06:42:42 UTC at block 15,537,393, the long-awaited Merge saw the merging of the Ethereum mainnet execution layer and the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer at the Terminal Total Difficulty of 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000, meaning the network will no longer rely on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

Ether’s (ETH) price got a slight pump following the Merge in hourly metrics, currently trading at around $1,635, according to data from TradingView.

The Ethereum Foundation said the Merge will make the Ethereum network about 99.95% more energy efficient and will set the stage for future scaling solutions, including sharding.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin celebrated the Merge with a tweet moments after the historical transition happened:

Speaking to Cointelegraph, StarkWare president and co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson said that “the immediate importance of the Merge is the dramatic effect on energy consumption.”

Ben-Sasson said it also marks “the first step in a process that will lead to exceedingly widespread adoption of Ethereum,” stating:

“It starts a chain reaction of changes. The end result will be the very broad use of Ethereum’s computing power and the general population using blockchain-based apps in many different areas of life.”

The Merge has come on the back of several years of hard work from the Ethereum Foundation.

Businesses that issue Ethereum-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) have been busy making their own adjustments about the Merge. Bradley Duke, CEO of the European crypto ETP issuer ETC Group, explained to Cointelegraph that the company has prepared a “forked version” of its ETH-based ETP in case there’s significant support for a PoW fork after the Merge.

“If enough people get behind a fork for whatever reason, we feel the free market will decide on what should live and what should not,” Duke added.

Related: It’s on! Where to catch the Ethereum Merge live

With the Merge complete, the “Surge,” “Verge,” “Purge” and “Splurge” are the final stages left on the Ethereum technical roadmap.

The Surge will increase scalability for rollups through sharding; the Verge will achieve statelessness through Verkle trees; the Purge will eliminate historical data and technical debt; and the Splurge will involve a number of small miscellaneous upgrades.

One of the biggest transitions in the history of blockchain didn’t go without opposition. ETHW Core, a group representing proof-of-work miners, announced that it will conduct a hard fork within 24 hours after the Merge.

Renowned designer Beeple celebrated the Merge with a sci-fi illustration: