The upcoming Ethereum Merge will bring a lot of improvements to the whole blockchain ecosystem. What to expect on GIFA Exchange and other cr...
The upcoming Ethereum Merge will bring a lot of improvements to the whole blockchain ecosystem. |
Ethereum Merge: This is a huge milestone for the industry
What is Ethereum Merge?
The Ethereum Merge represents the joining of the existing execution layer of Ethereum (the Mainnet we use today) with its new proof-of-stake consensus layer, the Beacon Chain. It eliminates the need for energy-intensive mining and instead secures the network using staked ETH. A truly exciting step in realizing the Ethereum vision – more scalability, security, and sustainability.
Although most investors think that the Merge just entails lower ETH gas fees and faster transaction speed, this is a great leap for the whole crypto industry. Considering that Ethereum is also the largest dApp host with the most reliable Web3 community, ETH utility is headed to further increase demand over supply. In turn, sustained buy pressure increases the ETH price.
- Soon, the current Ethereum Mainnet will merge with the Beacon Chain proof-of-stake system.
- This will mark the end of proof-of-work for Ethereum and the full transition to proof-of-stake.
- This sets the stage for future scaling upgrades including sharding.
- The Merge will reduce Ethereum's energy consumption by ~99.95%.
Over the last month, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin by +41%. Although Ethereum is the largest altcoin by market cap, it has always followed Bitcoin’s shadow. Given the fact that Ethereum’s network traffic hasn’t significantly increased since this year’s peak on July 26th, it is safe to say that Ethereum’s rally is anomalous, entirely driven by the upcoming Merge narrative.
The Merge is the most significant upgrade in the history of Ethereum. Extensive testing and bug bounties were undertaken to ensure a safe transition to proof-of-stake. This process is in its final stages, with plans to undergo The Merge on a few public testnets before finally moving forward with Mainnet.
According to Michael Anderson, Framework Ventures co-founder, over the last few months, we've seen three test nets behind the mainnet version of Ethereum go through the Merge process itself, which are sort of dress rehearsals for what's going to happen in mid-September. And this is a huge milestone for the industry.
Ethereum is the second largest crypto asset, the most widely used base layer blockchain, and with the most proliferation of engagement and activity from users, having it shift to a proof of stake ecosystem I would imagine represents a really huge opportunity for the staking asset class itself. So I wouldn't be surprised if there's more engagement and excitement from institutions around that fact.
Some of the benefits of this include, according to the Ethereum Foundation, a 99-plus percent decrease in energy consumption. And what this really represents for the longer-term prognosis of Ethereum is this is a major milestone on the roadmap to scaling for Ethereum. This doesn't have any direct implications for scaling immediately. But there are a number of other parallel protocol upgrades that we're tracking and are excited about that the Merge would enable to be able to actually be added in at a later date.