Since the inception of blockchain ledger technology, the developer community has constantly been striving for more efficient options. While keeping this in the eye, the Ethereum community has also been working on the most historic project since its inception, which is known as Ethereum Merge, which will transit its Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus into Proof-of-stake (PoS).
Ethereum Merge is about to take place in the next few months, preferably on or around September 15.
As we mentioned earlier, Ethereum Merge is not an overnight achievement, it has a few years of history back, which includes different upgrades, deployment of alternate Beacon Chain, and others.
So, let’s start from the very beginning and learn about Ethereum Merge.
History:
Vitalik Buterin, the founding father of the Ethereum blockchain came up with the concept of smart contract on the blockchain in 2015. Smart contract facilities allowed the developer community to build different dApps and protocols on the Ethereum blockchain, which paved a broader way to decentralization finance (DeFi).
Even Ethereum has an edge over the notorious Bitcoin blockchain with widespread solutions but still contains one major problem, which is its absolute high energy consumption.
Ethereum blockchain uses proof-of-work consensus, which requires enormous energy for mining to create new ETH and validate transactions. Generally, miners use energy to compute complex problems and equations to mine a block in a proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
Here is where the idea of an energy-efficient option, PoS consensus came to light. PoS is expected to reduce the computational work required to verify blocks and transactions on the Ethereum blockchain to secure the network.
Also, the community is also striving to enhance scalability as well as network performance by reducing gas costs and faster transaction execution.
What is Ethereum Merge?
Ethereum Merge is the moment when the Ethereum mainnet with the PoS consensus layer will merge with the proof-of-stake consensus layer, the Beacon Chain. Beacon Chain is being operated parallelly with Ethereum mainnet after its deployment on December 1, 2020.
According to developers, Ethereum Merge could be obtained on or around September 15. This means after Ethereum Merge, mining will no longer need block production. Instead of it, the validator will be accountable to create and validate new blocks.
Ethereum Merge will also provide a base to further scaling solution on Ethereum and it will pave a road for the next Ethereum upgrade, Sharding. Sharding will boost Ethereum’s data capacity and reduce transaction cost (gas fees) through dividing transactions across different layer-2 solutions.
Here note that, ETH holders do not need to worry about their funds during Ethereum Merge as their holdings will be safe during the entire process and no action is required to swap or exchange their tokens. the developer will take care of it.
What perks Ethereum Merge will have?
- Ethereum Merge will clearly cut down 99.5% energy consumption and remove the need of mining
- Next big upgrade, Sharding would become possible after Merge
Rumors About Ethereum Merge
While Ethereum Merge is about to take place, there are rumors or you can say misconceptions regarding this event, such as
- It will cut down gas fees
- It will improve transaction and network speed
- Staked ETH withdrawal will be available after Ethereum Merge
- Users will require 32 ETH to become validator
What profits Ethereum Merge will bring?
According to experts, Ethereum Merge doesn’t carry any direct benefit for investors, although it could be bullish for crypto investors in the long run due to the groundwork it lays for future upgrades to speed, fees and ecosystem development.
