Ethereum’s London hardfork is coming to three testnets, starting next week

As the DeFi sector emerged and brought countless new investors to Ethereum (ETH/USD), the network has been struggling even more than before, and it became imperative for the project to evolve into Ethereum 2.0. However, doing so is a long and complicated process that needs to be done right.

Even so, Ethereum has been making good progress so far, and it is getting ready to take the next step. Apparently, according to recent reports, it is almost ready for its London hardfork to go live on testnets. Three testnets will implement it soon, with the first one being Ropsten arriving next week, on June 24th, once the block height reaches 10,499,401. After that, the second one will be Goerli on June 30th, and finally, Rinkeby on July 7th.

So far, however, there is no known schedule regarding the mainnet upgrade.

What changes is the hard fork bringing?

According to Tim Beiko, the Ethereum core developer who made the announcement, only the testnets have been scheduled for London. After the upgrade is successfully activated, then and only then will the devs decide on the mainnet block at which the hardfork will be integrated. As soon as the developers know more, they will notify the community via the blog and various other venues, he promised.

The hard fork itself includes as many as five EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) upgrades, with the most important one being EIP-1559, which is an overhaul of the project’s fee structure. This one is getting the biggest amount of attention as the Ethereum gas fees have skyrocketed following the explosion of DeFi, and reducing them is one of the biggest goals right now.

It is possible that this upgrade will disrupt miner revenues by upward of 50%, which was previously a cause for an attempt at ‘miner revolt,’ as it is now known. However, the situation seems to have calmed down since the initial reaction. But, the upgrade itself has been long awaited, and many are still very excited about it. So much so that it is considered one of the biggest upcoming bullish catalysts for Ethereum.