• Cloudflare controls 80% of the internet infrastructure industry.
• Cloudflare will stop using the Rinkeby signer in order to strengthen the network.

Cloudflare, a company that provides a content delivery network and DDOS security, has announced its support of the Ethereum Merge, as well as its compatibility with the Sepolia and Goerli testnets on Ethereum gateways. Since the Merge facilitates user and device access to the Ethereum network, the backing of internet infrastructure company Cloudflare is vital.

Cloudflare controls 80% of the internet infrastructure industry. Cloudflare is used by the vast majority of cryptocurrency platforms to connect to the internet. This includes FTX, KuCoin, Kraken, Coinbase, WazirX, eToro, CoinMarketCap, Coingecko, Nexo, and many more.

Strengthening Ethereum Network

On September 13th, Cloudflare revealed its support for the Ethereum Merge. Cloudflare is also adding support for the Sepolia and Goerli testnets on its Ethereum gateway. The Merge network has a set of testnets that users may use to try out new features and bug fixes on the main network and to create and explore decentralized applications (DApps).

Cloudflare’s support for testnets guarantees the stability, practicability, and safety of updates before they are released to the Ethereum Mainnet.

In addition, Cloudflare said that it will stop using the Rinkeby signer in order to strengthen the Ethereum network. The Ethereum Foundation has decided that the Rinkeby testnet will no longer receive updates or fixes after January 15, 2023.

The Ethereum Foundation has further encouraged users and developers to make the switch to the Goerli or Sepolia testnets. Kiln, Ropsten, and Rinkeby, the Ethereum Merge testnets, will shortly be deprecated and shut down.

According to the Ethereum Foundation’s Merge tracker, the Ethereum Merge is scheduled to take place on September 15 at around 04:00 UTC. Additionally, about 85% of nodes are running the most recent version of the Ethereum client software.