On Tuesday, the inventor of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, said that the Ethereum merge is projected to take place “around” September 13 to September 15 and that this date is now on schedule. This is the day at which the proof-of-work consensus technique that requires a lot of energy will be abandoned by the second biggest cryptocurrency in the world.
The market shifts
The merging is only the most recent improvement to the Ethereum blockchain, which is being done in the interest of establishing a trustworthy decentralized environment for the future of money. The transition to proof of stake delivers several advantages, one of which is the alleviation of worries around energy use.
Block transactions are validated using proof of stake by validators who have bet a certain amount of their tokens on the outcome of the transaction. The greater the number of tokens that a person has linked to the blockchain, the greater the likelihood that they will be randomly selected to serve as a network validator.
In contrast to this, proof of work is an energy-intensive technique that depends on computers to solve mathematical formulas to mine tokens. This rate of energy consumption is a key critique of proof of work, which will remain the basis of Bitcoin mining when Ethereum abandons the procedure. Despite this criticism, proof of work remains the foundation of Bitcoin mining.
Apart from the problem with energy, and on top of the recent meltdowns of crypto lenders, the cryptocurrency sector as a whole is facing a multitude of macroeconomic issues. These concerns range from political tensions to high inflation rates to hawkish national monetary policies. These large-scale variables are generally regarded as the spark that ignited the latest bear market.
Price pressures are seen lately
In November of 2021, the price of a bitcoin hit an all-time high, which was $69,000. Since then, the price of Bitcoin along with the rest of the market has suffered as a result of the challenging economic circumstances. The short-term price forecast for the most popular cryptocurrency is still unclear as Bitcoin’s price continues to fluctuate and encounters some resistance near $20,000.
It is not apparent what type of event or change may assist Bitcoin is making a comeback. As the volatility of leading cryptocurrencies continues to worry mainstream investors, they may become more critical of the fundamentals of Bitcoin. Furthermore, the network upgrades that Ethereum is planning to implement to position its ecosystem as the currency of the future could place even more pressure on Bitcoin’s usability.
Vitalik Buterin voiced his worries about Bitcoin’s proof-of-work issuance model during an interview that took place one week ago with the journalist Noah Smith on the topic of security, governance, and consensus mechanism models. Buterin is concerned not just about the amount of energy that is being used in the present, but also about how the continuous issue of a proof-of-work token may impact future validation.
Following China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining, which resulted in a large reduction in the proportion of renewable energy sources that power the network, the study was strengthened. Alex de Vries, a researcher and skeptic of cryptocurrencies, observed that “Bitcoin became dirtier following the Chinese mining crackdown in 2021.”
Is the event being hyped unnecessarily?
However, not everyone is persuaded that this will result in Ethereum being the dominant cryptocurrency. The majority of the current narrative has been driven by the fact that analysts such as Glen Goodman from eToro have pointed out how the price of Ethereum has outperformed the price of Bitcoin in recent weeks. In the end, it is unclear what the future of Bitcoin will be like following the integration. There are several issues at play, including regulation, worries about energy use, and competitiveness. Inventors are apprehensive of the possible economic dangers at a time when their greatest rival is ready to claim a major technological advantage.
The majority of the cryptocurrency world is still buzzing with excitement after the successful completion of the Merge, which coincides with Ethereum’s historic switch to proof-of-stake (PoS). The most significant improvement that Merge has brought about for Ethereum is a 99% decrease in its overall energy consumption.
“This moves Ethereum away from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus and toward a proof-of-stake consensus,” Prashant Kumar, founder, and CEO of weTrade said in an interview with FE Blockchain. “This makes the blockchain more energy efficient, increases scalability, improves the speed of computations, and reduces costs.”
What are the effects of the ETH Merge?
The Ethereum community commemorated the successful transfer of the network to PoS by producing artwork and music during the Ethereum Merge. In addition, a non-fungible token (NFT) artist by the name of Beeple, who is also the creator of one of the most expensive NFTs that has ever been sold, recently published an illustration depicting a massive Ethereum logo that appears to be gradually emerging with the assistance of people who appear to be scientists.
Hashing power has surged by approximately 200% in the space of only the last 30 days as a direct result of the announcement of this merger. According to Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder, and CEO of Unocoin, “the impact of this revelation on Ethereum price has been speculated on since the prices have been declining over the previous week by around 6%.”
What does Buterin say about the Merge?
In a series of tweets, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, discussed the future of the blockchain. Buterin went on to describe a strategy that would bring the Ethereum smart contract blockchain to what he referred to as the “endgame.” This approach is an incremental one that consists of five steps.
In addition to this, it should be mentioned that the Merge will use around 99.5% less energy compared to the previous approach. The issue of ether will drop dramatically once the proof-of-work network is no longer operational, which will increase the cryptocurrency’s value. In general, the modification to the protocol will result in an improvement in how bitcoin is perceived and will attract a new group of individual and institutional investors. This information was provided by Swarup Gupta, the chief of financial analysis for the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Furthermore, musician Jonathan Mann offered a rundown of Ethereum’s background for the audience. Rostin Behnam, chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that the switch to PoS take on the Ethereum blockchain may assist in lowering the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies. He also hinted that legislation would presumably still be obligated to address the problem. Despite this, he believes that the switch could help reduce the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies.
While this was going on, an Ethereum researcher by the name of Justin Drake estimated that the Merge will also result in a drop of 0.2% in the usage of power all around the globe. In the hours leading up to the incident, Buterin referred to Drake’s forecast. The second key shift brought about by the conversion to PoS was the decrease in the quantity of ETH released as incentives for validators’ labor to maintain the network. As a result of this development, ETH has become a deflationary asset.
Final Thoughts
According to Nischal Shetty, founder, and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange WazirX in India, Ethereum is the “OG of smart contracts” and has been an important contributor to the development of the Web3 ecosystem. The official Twitter account for Dogecoin, which is presently the second-largest PoW cryptocurrency in terms of market value, has extended its congratulations to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, as well as to everyone else who participated in the Merge.
Since the beginning of this year, everyone’s attention has been focused on the Ethereum network and the Merge, the much-awaited upgrade that the network is undergoing. This ground-breaking update caused a wide variety of changes not just inside the ETH environment but also in the outside world. After Ethereum completed its move to proof-of-stake [PoS], the proof-of-work [PoW] cryptocurrency market was taken over by ETH’s equivalent, Dogecoin [DOGE], which is now the second biggest cryptocurrency overall.
What is DOGE?
Dogecoin, abbreviated as DOGE, is a cryptocurrency that is peer-to-peer and open-source. The picture of a Shiba Inu dog serves as its trademark, and the cryptocurrency was introduced in December of 2013, making it an alternative cryptocurrency. The blockchain technology that underpins Dogecoin, which was originally developed for Litecoin, has some value. Dogecoin, which makes use of an algorithm known as script, is notable for several reasons, including its cheap price and its endless supply.
DOGE coin price increment
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency based on a meme that was first created as a joke in 2013 and has now grown to become the second-largest proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. This breakthrough comes only one day after the Ethereum blockchain completed its switch to the power-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) mining model from the power-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism it had previously used.
The native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, known as Ether, has also, as a result, lost its position among the PoW currencies. Dogecoin, on the other hand, is now selling at $0.059 (which is equivalent to around Rs. 5), and its market value is at $7.83 billion at the moment.
Why are DOGE investors so happy?
The community around Dogecoin was overjoyed with the successful completion of the Merge, which was being celebrated by the whole community. Dogecoin was able to move up in the ranks to a position just behind Bitcoin [BTC] once Ethereum entered the world of proof-of-stake transactions. DOGE was at the top of the PoW cryptocurrency list when it came to market cap. Dogecoin paved the path for other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum Classic [ETC], Litecoin [LTC], and Monero [XMR].
The market capitalization of Dogecoin was estimated to be $7.87 billion at press time, but its price saw a daily decrease of 2%. The price of Elon Musk’s preferred cryptocurrency was $0.0592 at present. As a result, many in the DOGE community started to rejoice over this victory. Several people were taken aback and were unable to believe what had just taken place.
How was the Merge responsible for Doge prices?
The transition from PoW to PoS on Ethereum was met with a great deal of resistance. By making adjustments, several people pointed out that the Ethereum network was going against the spirit of cryptography. In addition to this, opponents pointed out that the network was also interfering with the process of decentralization.
Following the recent statements made by SEC head Gary Gensler, the network is also under pressure from regulatory authorities. Since Ethereum transitioned to Proof-of-Stake, the community has been voicing their worries about the cryptocurrency being mistaken for security.
It is expected that the cryptocurrency sector will continue to focus on Bitcoin, DOGE, and other cryptocurrencies that are generated using proof-of-work algorithms. For example, Ethereum Classic received a significant amount of attention in the middle of the Merge. As a result, it is very possible that proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies could see greater attention in the days and weeks ahead.
Should Dogecoin go into proof-of-stake?
Despite the Merge, Dogecoin was still able to create headlines. Along the way, though, discussions on the potential of Dogecoin to enter the Point-of-Sale market were also started. Considering the intense attention that has been placed on PoW cryptocurrency for its energy usage, some people have pointed out the need for DOGE to include an alternate approach. However, several other people pointed out that Dogecoin uses a great deal less power than Bitcoin does.
According to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum network, the much-anticipated software update of the Ethereum blockchain, which is referred to in the cryptocurrency industry as the Merge, is now expected to take place around September 13 to September 15.
The Merge signifies a movement in the manner that Ether tokens are generated and payments are verified, away from mining blocks utilizing challenging computational puzzles following the proof-of-work technique and toward the proof-of-stake approach. The proof-of-work method required miners to solve increasingly difficult problems to get new blocks. Holders of Ether may sign up to verify transactions on Ethereum using the POS mechanism, which is based on stashes of locked up tokens in their possession.
Buterin said that the proof-of-work version of Ethereum only has a roughly “fixed amount” of mining slots after the last test stage of the Merge known as Goerli earlier this week. Goerli was known as the name of the test stage. Because of this, engineers now have a better idea of when the formal network update will likely get underway.
An earlier projection suggested that the date would fall between September 15 and September 20. Next week, there will be another meeting with the engineers working on Ethereum to iron out any last-minute kinks in the Merge. During this call, a specific date will be decided upon and hammered out.
The Bellatrix hard fork
On the Ethereum blockchain, the long-awaited update to Ethereum 2.0 is set to get underway. Ethereum 2.0 refers to the method by which the cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) will transition from operating on a proof-of-work (PoW) basis to operating on a proof-of-stake (PoS) basis through a hard fork, also known as a separation process. Even though the Ethereum Foundation does not make use of the phrase “Ethereum 2.0,” the word is often used in the industry to make things easier to understand.
A Bellatrix upgrade for ETH is slated for today, the day before the final merge. At that time, the Ethereum Epoch value on the proof-of-stake chain is expected to increase to 144,896. This will occur before the final merge. According to the Ethereum Foundation, one epoch is the amount of time that must pass to mine 30,000 blocks.
The most recent upgrade to Bellatrix is required for “the Merge” to be carried out without a hitch. This upgrade is the last one that will take place before the Paris Upgrade, which will take place after “the Merge.” It brings together the proof-of-stake chain and the current execution layer (current proof-of-work).
Mining on the Ethereum Blockchain will be rendered obsolete as a result of the Paris Upgrade, which will also herald the transition from a proof-of-work validation system to a proof-of-stake system design.
An outline of the most recent changes to Ethereum
In the same way that Bitcoin was constructed, the Ethereum network was built using the proof-of-work (PoW) method. This suggests that mining, a process that uses a substantial amount of energy, is necessary for the production of Ethereum (ETH) coins.
To make the transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) paradigm, however, various measures were made in preparation for the introduction of Ethereum 2.0 in 2020. The purpose of this project is to improve the speed, efficiency, and scalability of the Ethereum network to facilitate the execution of a greater number of transactions in parallel.
What will happen after The Merge?
At the beginning of this year, Ethereum’s original developer, Vitalik Buterin, assigned a development progress rating of 50% to the project. In addition to this appraisal, he included a list of the many stages, such as merging, surge, verge, and others, that Ethereum must go through to reach 100%.
The update to Bellatrix is slated to take place today. As part of this process, the Beacon Chain will be integrated with the Ethereum mainnet, and the consensus method will be converted entirely from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.
The zk-rollups layer 2 scaling solution will need to be implemented as the next stage of the surge. To aggregate and carry out several transactions all at once, a technique known as rollup makes use of an Ethereum sidechain.
Slow transition speed and high cost have been two of the biggest hurdles for Ethereum. The platform focuses on decentralization and security. Though there is a lack of scalability. Hence, there is always a spike in traffic, and transaction speed and cost also tend to be solved. At the recently held Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Paris, co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the network was only “40 percent complete”. The reasons were the hurdles.
Buterin anticipated a future where Ethereum can hit the speed of 100,000 transactions per second (TPS). Buterin has also mentioned five key events that required it to happen. What the events mean for Ethereum, and how much time it will take, all are going to be explained in this article.
Overview Of The Merge :
The Ethereum community and developers consider the Ethereum Merge as one of the most critical and remarkable upgrades in the history of cryptocurrency. It is going to shift Ethereum’s consensus protocol from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). The upgrade will automatically render mining obsolete along with shifting to staking for block validation and addition. This merger will massively decline the energy consumption of the network. According to some predictions, the power requirement is going to decrease by 99.9 percent.
This upcoming merge is wished to increase throughput. But the improvement is not predicted to be very massive. Ethereum developers are expecting the transaction speed will increase by a maximum of 10 percent. It will reduce the fee.
The Surge :
The move to PoS alone may not impact a massive enhancement in transaction speeds. But, it will open up the ways for future innovations, like sharding. It will massively affect the network performance.
Sharding is the secondary blockchain branch. It helps to process some transactional data and reduce the pressure on the mainnet or main blockchain. It will raise the throughput along with helping to bring down gas fees. An official Ethereum blog post noted, that Sharding should occur sometime in 2023. It will depend on how quickly and smoothly the Merge will work.
What Is The Verge :
The Verge refers to the technical updates like ‘Verkle proofs’ and ‘clientless states’. The updates are wished to optimize storage on the Ethereum blockchain. It also reduces node size. This helps to enable any network participants with a laptop along with a few megabytes of space to join in the validation process.
About The Purge :
This stage starts with ‘purging’ previous data that is not needed at present time. This process will decrease file sizes enough. It is for tiny computing units such as mobile phones to be able to run Ethereum nodes because of the need for low storage.
The Splurge Explained :
This stage is associated with minor changes. It will be done to ensure that the blockchain will be there permanently and run at its maximum capacity. Additionally, the assumption is that by this stage, the user will have a version of Ethereum that will be the best. It can be or can continuously process close to 100,000 transactions. presently, the network is actively searching for potential issues including preparing for emergencies.
Conclusion :
The Merge is a crucial and remarkable milestone for the Ethereum network, regardless of the whole crypto market. Though, this is not the ultimate destination. There is a long way waiting to climb before Ethereum is 100 percent complete. But, mainly the reduction of fees and increase in transaction speed is going to help out the users across the network. Bitcoin is continuing with the PoW mechanism, but Ethereum’s improvement led major users to shift into the network.
