Ethereum Reports Successful Merge Upgrade

Ethereum executes and verifies smart contracts. Smart contracts allow transactions without a central authority.

Participants own, verify, and securely distribute immutable transaction records. Ethereum accounts send and receive transactions. To process transactions, senders must sign and pay Ether.

Ethereum claims the Merge upgrade was successful and will continue.

The Merge is a big step toward decreasing Ethereum blockchain electricity use, but more improvements are coming.

At 2:45 p.m. Hong Kong time, the Ethereum Foundation completed the Paris update, ending the long wait for the Ethereum network upgrade.

The Merge will transform the world's second-largest blockchain, with a market value of US$200 billion, to consume less energy and speed up transactions.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin acknowledged the occasion at a live-streamed Merge event but stressed there is more to come.

"Let's build out all the other components of that ecosystem and evolve Ethereum into what we want," he stated. The Merge represents the gap between early-stage Ethereum and the Ethereum we've always sought.

After the Merge news, ether fell 0.5% to US$1,611.

The second-largest token's market cap increased by 50% in the three months before the Merge. However, macroeconomic issues including rising US interest rates have slowed bitcoin growth.

In an interview with Forkast, Justin d'Anethan, Institutional Sales Director at digital asset dealer Amber Group, said the macro narrative dragging on risk assets makes this a fascinating time for the Merge. Bitcoin investors should enjoy the Merge.

"I'm still generally bullish on Ethereum," said d'Anethan. "I wouldn't try to estimate the timetable for the future weeks or months because there are many unknowns."

Ethereum switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS) after the Merge (PoW). Based on their Ether stake, PoS users validate blockchain transactions.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, uses the original PoW technique to validate transactions utilizing energy-intensive computer farms.

The Ethereum Foundation claims PoS will cut network energy consumption by 99.95%. Jonathan Victor, Protocol Labs' head of NFT and Web3 storage, told Forkast in a written statement that this is good for Ethereum and the cryptocurrency industry as it faces scrutiny amid a global push to decarbonize economies.

He said that this is a particular difficulty for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), most of which are hosted on Ethereum, and that most companies want net zero by 2050, and that the Merge would bring ETH closer to this goal. This exodus will appease even the harshest NFT detractors.

D'Anethan urged investors and the crypto community to stay calm during The Merge.

d'Anethan advises investors to see through the hype and realize this is not the goal. "It enables several Ethereum improvements."

THE LONG HISTORY OF THE MERGE 2014: Vitalik Buterin states in the Ethereum white paper's introduction that proof-of-work will likely be replaced.

2015. The first block produced 72 million ether currency. Buterin got 553,000 ether.

Ethereum will offer a beacon chain deposit contract in October 2020 to gauge proof-of-stake demand. After the integration, you could validate Ethereum transactions by staking 32 ether.

November 2020: The beacon chain reaches 524,288 staked ether, the Ethereum minimum for a working mechanism.

December 2020: The beacon chain begins seven days after the staking barrier. Testing is underway to see if the chain can handle all Ethereum transactions.

September 2022 saw the merger.

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum upgraded to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus method in "the Merge."

Changed. Ethereum's energy consumption reduced by 99.95%, saving 110 terawatt-hours per year (110 billion kilowatt-hours). Ethereum users need not do anything to upgrade.

The Merge replaced Ethereum's proof-of-work mining with Beacon Chain. Validators staking ether protect the proof-of-stake Beacon Chain.