Ethereum’s network is inching closer toward its much-anticipated software upgrade known as the Merge, having just entered a key testing step.

Earlier Monday, Ethereum developers launched a so-called mainnet shadow fork, stress-testing the new upcoming software. The test uncovered at least one bug, but the deployment has mostly gone smoothly, and was "a huge success,” Ethereum developer Marius Van Der Wijden said in a Tweet.

The test marks the latest step toward the Merge, the software upgrade that will change the way transactions on the Ethereum network are ordered.

Currently, so-called miners order transactions using giant server farms. After the Merge, the miners will be out of the job, and the transaction ordering will be done by so-called stakers, by using swaths of Ether in a system called Proof of Stake. The change is projected to cut Ethereum’s energy use by some 99%.

The shift is being watched closely, with Ethereum the most important commercial network. It trails only Bitcoin in market value at around US$360bil .

Decentralised-finance apps with more than US$108bil in value locked in them are also dependent on the update. The incessant testing that the Ethereum developers have been doing for months is designed to detect bugs and issues before the system is projected to go live later this year, to avoid major problems.

Ether fell about 9% on Monday to below US$3,000 amid a broad decline in digital-asset prices.

 - Bloomberg