Ethereum has just completed its Bellatrix upgrade, which marks the last significant milestone before its ETH 2.0 merge. The developers have already claimed successful operation but it was not entirely an easy sell.
The prevailing narrative after the Bellatrix upgrade is that it was a success and that Ethereum is now ready for the grand event. Nevertheless, early reports suggest that the missed block rate for Ethereum increased by over 9%.
Missed block rate in last 600 slots: >9%
Historically this rate has been around ~0.5%. It shows that Bellatrix caused some problems for some validators. Nothing dramatic but a number to keep an eye on nonetheless.— Martin Koeppelmann (@koeppelmann) 6 September 2022
A major change in Ethereum’s block rate means validators may take longer to verify data. Such result can slow down the performance as transaction verification will take longer time. Fortunately, the block rate spike only affected a small fraction of Ethereum validators.
A large enough lapse would signify failure at the block rate validator node level and would have potentially disastrous consequences. For example, this would erode some investor confidence and send ETH to the downside.
Galaxy Headquarters researcher Christine Kim noted that validator disruptions were behind the missed block rate spike.
The number of offline validators increased after Bellatrix, which is why we are probably seeing an increase in missed blocks. By missed blocks, I mean those slots where a block was not proposed by a validator. Not major, but suggest some validators still need to upgrade their nodes.
— Christine Kim (@christine_dkim) 6 September 2022
Calm water ahead?
Most of the validators managed to stay online and were upgraded accordingly. Developers were pleased with the result of the Bellatrix upgrade, although a small percentage did not manage to upgrade.
Developer confidence about the current trajectory of the merge is because validators can still upgrade before the final phase.
The prevailing sentiment is that the Bellatrix upgrade was a success despite minor hiccups.
This is also good news for ETH traders as the development did not create any concerns that could trigger another major selloff. Furthermore, the success rate so far makes a strong case for accumulating more ETH before the merge.
King Alt has registered a major decline of 11.5% in the last two days. However, this performance was related to macroeconomic factors, which have affected investor sentiment.
ETH traders should also note that the downside of ETH is limited despite the current market adversity.
It is still trading at a premium of over 70% as compared to its current 2022 lows. Perhaps that’s a sign it’s handling headwinds much better than anticipated, likely as investors remain optimistic about the merge.