The biggest event in the crypto space; The Ethereum Merge; is almost at the end. The countdown shows only a little more than 24 hours for the Ethereum network to fully transition from its previously Proof of Work consensus to the more efficient Proof of Stake consensus.
Apart from the Merge, the Ethereum Proof of Work network is set to fork within 24 hours after the Merge is completed, according to a thread posted Monday on the @EthereumPoW Twitter feed.
ETHW Core Announced the Plan for Mainnet#ethereum #ethw #ethereummerge #ethereumfork $ethw $eth #ethpow
1/n pic.twitter.com/cnYOW6l1iU
— EthereumPoW (ETHW) Official #ETHW #ETHPoW (@EthereumPoW) September 12, 2022
To ensure that the chainID converts to 10001, the ETHW mainnet will be starting the “the block height of the Merge block ‘plus’ 2048 empty blocks”. One of the first block to note any transactions on ETHW will be the Merge block +2049. According to the thread posted on the @EthereumPoW Twitter feed, “Block rewards for the empty blocks will be directed to the 1559 multi-sig wallet.”
Few of the Ethereum miners who are used to running computational algorithms to solve puzzles via the Proof of Work mechanism still want to keep the old network alive and running. The forked network, however, will be of the same look and feel as Ethereum, but the network will only be a skeleton of the real ETH blockchain before the merge. The network will have all the apps and tokens floating around but without the usual usage or value, according to the CoinDesk news.
According to few Ethereum supporters, a crucial question remains about how much traction the ETHW can possibly get when there is already an established forked network of Ethereum Classic; that maintains PoW. The market cap and trade volumes will soon have an indication about the market sentiments regarding the ETHW token to this question.
Source: CoinDesk
Why is the Ethereum Merge Important for EVERYONE?
Firstly, the energy efficiency. With the Etheruem merge completing its course, the crypto space will be able to see the Ethereum network’s hash rate plunge to zero right away, since proof-of-work mining on Ethereum will end. Some crypto analysts are of the opinion that this huge change in the Ethereum Network might put even more public pressure on Bitcoin’s big energy use, something Bitcoiners like Dan Held have already acknowledged.
Secondly, the impact this Ethereum merge will have on the crypto tokens commonly addressed as ‘The Ethereum Killers’ like Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche, Cardano, etc. These coins had set up their position as being more energy efficient than Ethereum in the past. Once the Ethereum network transitions itself to Proof of Stake from its Proof of Work consensus, all of these coins lose their USP to Ethereum.
WHAT IS ETHEREUM MERGE?
According to the technical definition by the Ethereum Foundation, the 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. Ethereum Merge eliminates the need for energy-intensive mining and instead secures the network using staked ETH.
This is being done with the objective of primarily becoming more energy sustainable but also at the same time will make it more secure and scalable.
