Ethereum Merge Targeted For September 15th/16th

Quick Take

• Goerli successfully undergoes the merge.
• Ethereum Merge TTD value is set to hit around September 15th.
• DeFi Saver adds support for automation for Aave V3 on Arbitrum.
• MakerDAO plans to reduce its dependency on USDC.

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Goerli Merge Is Now Live

The Goerli testnet successfully merged with Prater on Thursday, August 11th at 01:45 UTC at epoch 113734. Goerli’s transition to PoS did experience some minor issues, including a ~15% drop in network participation and a Beacon Chain reorg. The first merge epoch also missed 3/32 blocks.

According to Ethereum developer Marius Van Der Wijden, the network confusion was caused by two different terminal blocks. Roughly 15% of validators were initially on the wrong fork, likely due to outdated or misconfigured nodes. Participation dropped from 90.23% in the first merged block to 68.75% two blocks later. Validators eventually jumped onto the correct fork as Goerli finalized roughly an hour after the first merge block.

Merge Targeted For September 15th

During this week’s consensus layer call, Ethereum developers selected the Epoch and TTD value for the merge on Ethereum Mainnet. Epoch 144896 was selected for the Bellatrix upgrade, which is set to occur on September 6th. Developers agreed on TTD value 56.04 sextillion, which would be hit between September 15th and 16th, given current hashrate levels.

If the hashrate drops significantly, developers plan to tweak the final TTD value after the Bellatrix upgrade to target the September 15th-16th timeline. Post-merge, only Sepolia and Goerli testnets will be maintained. The Merge on Ethereum Mainnet marks the most significant upgrade to the network since the launch of the chain.

Unmarshal Smart Contract Indexer

Chain-agnostic indexing protocol Unmarshal released a no-code smart contract indexer called Parser. The tool automatically indexes data associated with any given smart contract deployed on Ethereum, Polygon, or Binance Chain. Once indexed, users can visualize and query data via open source tools Metabase and GraphQL.

The tool indexes, extracts, and decodes protocol data including events and function data such as price. User’s simply enter a smart contract address and select on-chain events and functions within the user interface. Unmarshal is planning to release a notification plugin that will allow dapps to alert their users across devices.

DeFi Saver Automation Live On Arbitrum Aave

DeFi Saver expanded support for its automation feature to Aave V3 positions on the Arbitrum network. DeFi Saver automations allow users to auto-manage leverage strategies on MakerDAO, Compound, and Aave positions. To set it up, users simply configure their thresholds and target ratios for auto-repayment and auto-boosting.

Automation for Aave v3 on Arbitrum allows users to protect against liquidation by automatically deleveraging in market downturns. Users can also automate leverage boosting during bull markets. The feature is only available for smart wallet users with a debt position greater than $500. DeFi Saver also supports on-way migrations to a smart wallet for positions that are currently on an externally owned account.

MakerDAO Plans To Diversify USDC Holdings

MakerDAO is facing a challenge in reducing its dependency on the USDC stablecoin. More than 50% of DAI’s supply was generated by USDC collateral. Circle’s recent wallet address blacklisting of Tornado Cash tied wallets has raised concern about the potential blacklisting of MakerDAO-owned addresses.

MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen stated that it’s inevitable for DAI to depeg. Christensen jokingly proposed to yolo the protocol’s USDC holdings into ETH. However, market volatility would almost certainly lead to a depeg. Christensen ultimately advised that it may be worth the risk/reward to swap out the protocol’s USDC holdings in partial increments.