Ethereum published the mainnet schedule for its proof-of-stake Merge

Ethereum turns the Merge plan into an operating schedule

The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Support Team published the mainnet schedule for the Merge on August 24, 2022, converting a long-planned consensus change into a specific operational sequence for node operators, validators, miners and infrastructure providers.

The announcement scheduled Bellatrix, the Beacon Chain upgrade that would prepare Ethereum’s consensus layer for the transition, for epoch 144896 at 11:34:47 UTC on September 6, 2022. It also fixed the execution layer’s Terminal Total Difficulty, or TTD, at 58750000000000000000000. Reaching that cumulative proof-of-work difficulty would trigger Paris, the stage at which Ethereum’s execution layer would begin relying on Beacon Chain validators rather than miners.

The Foundation estimated on August 24 that the TTD would be reached between September 10 and September 20, 2022. That was an estimate rather than a conventional calendar activation: the exact time depended on the amount of proof-of-work hash rate contributing difficulty to the chain.

Two triggers, one network transition

The scheduling method reflected the unusual architecture of the Merge. Bellatrix used a predetermined Beacon Chain epoch, while Paris depended on a condition measured on the proof-of-work chain. After the execution layer reached or exceeded the specified TTD, the subsequent block was expected to be produced by a Beacon Chain validator.

The announcement said the transition would be considered complete when the Beacon Chain finalized that block. Under normal network conditions, the Foundation expected finalization two epochs—approximately 13 minutes—after the first post-TTD block. Those figures described the intended protocol sequence, not a guarantee against delays, client failures or abnormal network conditions.

Operators also faced a broader change than in a conventional single-client upgrade. A post-Merge full node required both an execution-layer client and a consensus-layer client communicating through the Engine API. The Foundation warned that operators using software without Merge support would remain on a chain following the old rules and would not operate on the intended post-Merge network.

Why the announcement mattered

For exchanges, custodians, staking providers and application infrastructure, August 24 established a concrete change-management window. That institutional significance is an interpretation of the technical schedule: the announcement itself did not certify that every service provider was prepared.

For miners, the consequence was more direct. The Foundation said proof-of-work mining would no longer produce blocks on the intended Ethereum network after the transition. For validators, the announcement also clarified that Beacon Chain withdrawals were not included in the Merge. The upgrade was deliberately limited to the consensus transition, so participation in staking did not become withdrawable merely because execution moved to proof of stake.

The Foundation additionally applied a four-times multiplier to Merge-related vulnerability bounties through September 8, 2022, with critical findings eligible for rewards of as much as $1 million. That incentive underscored the technical risk surrounding a coordinated change spanning multiple clients and two previously separate layers.

What remained uncertain on August 24

The August 24 record established parameters and readiness instructions; it did not establish that the Merge had already occurred. Hash-rate changes could move Paris within the stated September 10–20 window, and implementation still depended on operators installing compatible software.

No ether price or percentage move is attributed to the announcement in this reconstruction. Cryptoassets trade continuously across venues, so a defensible event-day market claim would require a named ETH trading pair, exchange, UTC candle boundary and retrieval methodology. The cited protocol and news records do not provide that standardized market measurement.

Later context

Ethereum’s official fork history records that Bellatrix activated at epoch 144896 on September 6, 2022, and that the chain reached the specified TTD at block 15537393 on September 15, 2022. Those outcomes confirm the later execution of the schedule but were not knowable as completed events on August 24.