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The hard fork pushed back the so-called “difficulty bomb,” which had been gradually slowing Ethereum block production, improving performance in the short term The Merge has not been scheduled, but the new timing of the difficulty bomb points to when Ethereum core developers think it will take effect Ethereum’s scheduled Grey Glacier hard fork went into effect on Thursday at 6:54 am ET — Block 15050000 to be precise — and caused no problems, according to Ethereum client developer Nethermind and the Ethereum Foundation’s Tim Beiko .

The difficulty bomb doesn’t “go off” all at once, but it gradually forces an “exponential increase in proof-of-work difficulty setting designed to motivate the transition [from proof-of-work] to proof-of-stake,” according to ethereum.org.

A prior hard fork, in December 2021, postponed the difficulty bomb until June, when the Ethereum community previously hoped to execute The Merge.

The new network upgrade pushes back the bomb — also known as the Ice Age — by 700,000 Ethereum blocks, or around 100 days’ time, restoring the status quo.

If it doesn’t get postponed again, the new difficulty bomb will start to take effect in October, giving developers a clear target by when to deliver The Merge upgrade and execute the historic transition to a proof-of-stake regime.