Sep 15, 2022 at 06:20It’s a sad day for the miners, a happy day for the PC gamers, and a disappointing day for the traders
It’s done! The Ethereum’s Merge was successful, and as of September 15, the top blockchain network merged with Beacon Chain’s share confirmation system, leading to the transition from consensus Proof-of-Work (mining) to Proof-of-Stake.
Thus, it makes no sense to mine more. And the power consumption of the network decreased to about 0.01 TWh/year (before this, it was 112 TWh/year). Ethereum’s ecological footprint has been reduced by more than 99%.
It can be a shock for those who have only recently invested thousands of dollars in the purchase of video cards for mining. But for those who have already acquired a decent amount of Ethereum, it’s great because it welcomes stacking. Users are rewarded for storing cryptocurrency and ensuring that the blockchain works.
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But, the network will not become cheaper or faster (the bandwidth will remain the same). Investors will also be unable to withdraw the tokens they deposited in exchange for a refund immediately after the merger. They will have to wait six to 12 months for the Shanghai update.
- If you have ERC-20 (tokens) or ERC-721 (NFT), you don’t need to do anything. The Merge will not affect anything.
- Validators (the heavy wallets that take an active part in building the blockchain) must ensure that the beacon chain client is updated (lighthouse/lodestar/nimbus/prysm/teku). And a suggested-fee-recipient is properly configured.
- Make sure your jwt secret is set correctly from your execution engine client (geth/nethermind/etc.) in your beacon chain client config (you can check your setup here).
- If you are running a node, you will need to run a consensus client, geth guide, and consensus guides.
- If you are a miner, blocks won’t be produced by mining anymore. And you will need to run a consensus client (running a node) if you want to keep running a node.
Why didn’t ETH rise to $10,000?
For those who did not deeply dig into the topic of blockchain and Ethereum, it was a surprise that the price of the cryptocurrency did not skyrocket. It is considered the second most important event in cryptography since the creation of Bitcoin. But there has been no magical post-Merge plunge, and ETH is worth about $1,500 as of September 15.
According to one view, the Merge is already priced in. And the big whales aren’t going to buy billions of dollars worth of Ethereum in the next 24 hours.
In crypto, the price doesn’t move according to the technology, as we already know. So it’s the same in this case, too. However, the merger itself is a big technological milestone.
The consensus and execution layers have been merged which means Ethereum is now a full Proof of Stake network!
A heartfelt thank you to all the people that made this happen – your names will be forever etched in the history books of Ethereum.
The Merge is here 🐼 pic.twitter.com/WYGEPIbUe7
— sassal.eth 🦇🔊 (@sassal0x) September 15, 2022
But the first confirmed block after the Merge brought the validators a reward of 46 ETH (just over $72,000).
Among happy crypto investors found and less pleased about this landmark event. For example, the owners of Ether are disappointed not only by the stagnant price but also by the fact that the fees instantly increased five times.
Also, some fear that the move to a new consensus mechanism will make Ethereum centralized and easily censored by the establishment.
Not Ether alone (this cryptocurrency is worth a closer look in September)
Avalanche (AVAX) is a Tier 1 blockchain network hosting decentralized applications. Avalanche has an estimated market value of $5.4 billion. AVAX is the 16th largest cryptocurrency in the world.
Due to the multiple uses of the Avalanche network, its popularity has only grown over the years. It is the Ethereum network that it wants to surpass. The Avalanche blockchain can process up to 6,500 transactions per second, while Ethereum can only process 30.
Avalanche’s ecosystem gas pedal, Colony Lab, has partnered with Phuture, a decentralized crypto-index platform. Together, they will launch CAI (Colony Avalanche Index), an index token that offers access to the Avalanche ecosystem. It is an investment vehicle.
The CAI network is the third largest DeFi (decentralized ecosystem) by total blockchain value. It contains popular GameFi projects, including DeFi Kingdoms, the first multi-chain Play-to-Earn (P2E) game in the metaverse.
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