Privacy-focused Gnosis, one of the first sidechains to Ethereum, will conduct its own version of the Merge to replace its proof-of-authority (PoA) chain with its Gnosis proof-of-stake (PoS) beacon chain. The Merge will take place on Thursday, Dec. 8, when a certain predetermined Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) is reached. While TTD is a measure that has typically been used for proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, it can be used to time the fork for PoA chains.

This will be the second-ever “Merge” event in blockchain history, following the Ethereum blockchain’s Merge in September when it switched out its old PoW model for PoS. This time, however, the Gnosis “Merge” will be slightly different given that it is swapping out PoA for PoS.