~20 days until the Merge 
tl;dr
Merge Data Challenge 
In preparation for the imminent Merge, the Merge Data Challenge is live!
The Merge is the most complex upgrade to Ethereum to date and potentially to any public blockchain network ever. And with that comes tons of data to collect, data to visualize, tools to write, and things to explain so that researchers, developers, and community members can better understand the interworkings of the post-Merge network.
To kick off data exploration in this new paradigm, the EF is hosting an open competition between now and October 31st, 2022. Get started early if you want to compare pre and post Merge data!
Find all of the details here.
The Merge is imminent, upgrade your nodes 
Mainnet Merge client releases are out. The time to configure your nodes is now.
If you are a staker and did not previously run an Execution Layer client, make sure to configure your system and give sufficient lead time to sync Mainnet (which can take many days!).
The Consensus Layer will upgrade to Bellatrix on September 6th, 2022, and the Merge transition will happen sometime between September 10th and 20th, 2022.
Don’t get left behind — The Merge is coming
