bloXroute is on track for the merge
By: Eyal Markovich, Co-founder & COO
The ETH merge is fast approaching, and it is currently scheduled for mid-September. Preparing for the merge has been bloXroute’s top priority for the last two months, and we plan to be ready and provide our users with the same functionality and more. I want to share some updates on a few changes that are coming in preparation for the merge:
— No changes are expected after the merge.
— Only GO gateway will support blocks post the merge. A GO gateway version supporting the merge is planned to be released around Aug 24, 2022. Gateways that are not upgraded will not work properly.
— Users with the Enterprise tier can use the GO gateway on ETH.
— The Python gateway will become an EOL product. Users with a Professional plan that paid before Aug 16 Noon CST and are running Python gateway(s) will be able to run the GO gateway(s) until their current subscription expires. Professional tier users will be able to continue to use the Cloud-API for mempool and block streaming.
External Block Builders
— Post-merge, we are expecting to see external block builders. A block builder is an entity that will provide a block to the current proposal validator.
— bloXroute is planning to run at least two external block builders, and bloXroute users will be able to submit their public/private transactions and Flashbots bundles using the same API as before (blxr_tx and blxr_mev_searcher).
— We are expecting to provide a significant percentage of blocks.
— A few API calls were changed to include new optional parameters. (For example, a frontrunning parameter was added in MEV bundles.)
— Please check the ETH2 documentation for the new API format — https://docs.bloxroute.com/ropsten-eth2.0.
— Searchers that would like to test the new API can do so in Ropsten as we added support for this network.
BackRunMe
— We expect to see an increase in BackRunMe activity due to the fact that block timing is known, which can allow searchers more time to identify backrun opportunities.
We will update more as we get closer to the merge.
