Notice Regarding the Upcoming Ethereum Merge

Ethereum is moving to proof-of-stake! The Ethereum Foundation officially announced two important steps about the transition, known as The Merge.

• Step 1: The Merge must first be activated on the Beacon Chain with the Bellatrix upgrade. The Bellatrix upgrade is scheduled for epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain — around Sept 6, 2022.
• Step 2: The Terminal Total Difficulty value triggering The Merge is 58750000000000000000000, expected between Sept 10–20, 2022.

Step 1 will have no impact of any kind on either Wanchain’s sustainable Layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain or decentralised wide area network of blockchains. As such, only Step 2 is of concern.

Since Wanchain has deployed several bridges to-and-from Ethereum, it is vital for Wanchain Bridge Node operators and Wanchain crosschain token holders to understand the steps that Wanchain is taking in anticipation of The Merge.

For Bridge Node operators

Wanchain Bridge Nodes will be upgraded during Step 2 of The Merge. During the upgrade, crosschain transactions related to Ethereum may be unavailable. This includes but is not limited to Ethereum←→Wanchain, Ethereum←→Bitcoin, and Ethereum←→XRPL bridges. Any interruption to crosschain services is not expected to exceed 1 day, though this is partially dependent on the status of The Merge itself. Crosschain transactions that do not involve Ethereum, such as Wanchain←→XRPL and OKC←→XDC Network bridges, will be unaffected.

For crosschain token holders

After the Merge, there may be a forked proof-of-work chain competing with Ethereum’s primary proof-of-stake chain. In this scenario, Wanchain’s decentralised wide area network of blockchains will only support Ethereum’s primary proof-of-stake chain. In other words, any and all assets bridged from Ethereum using Wanchain’s bridges will only be returned to the native asset on Ethereum’s primary proof-of-stake chain.

If a user wishes to receive assets created by potential forks during the Merge, they need to hold the relevant assets on Ethereum when the Merge begins, before any potential forks occur.

For other users

Others users on Wanchain will not be affected by The Merge and do not need to take any actions.

About Wanchain

We are all connected — Wanchain, the Wide Area Network chain, is the world’s premier decentralised blockchain interoperability solution. Our mission is to drive blockchain adoption through interoperability by building fully decentralised bridges that connect the world’s many siloed blockchain networks. This crosschain infrastructure empowers developers to build truly decentralised crosschain applications to power the future of Web3.

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