Ethereum team scheduled the merge date — what’s in it for ordinary users

Ethereum developers have announced a date for the merge, the process of switching the network from the Proof-of-Work mechanism to Proof-of-Stake the methods used by cryptocurrencies to verify the accuracy of new transactions added to the blockchain. If all goes according to plan, the event will occur on September 19. The reason for this choice was tweeted by one of the developers of superphiz.eth on July 14. It will be one of the most critical events in the web3 world in 2022. And here’s why it’s important. 

It is worth to be mentioned that the migration date is not yet exact. The final one will depend on how the migration of the Goerli an Ethereum test network that allows for blockchain development testing before deployment on Mainnet, the leading Ethereum network test network to PoS goes on August 11. 

What’s the merge? 

The merge update to the Ethereum network will primarily focus on changing the consensus mechanism: moving from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, changing blockchain transaction validation and adding new blocks. 

The merge update to the Ethereum network will primarily focus on changing the consensus mechanism: moving from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, changing blockchain transaction validation and adding new blocks. 

The merge will remove the PoW consensus layer and combine the PoS algorithm of the Beacon Chain network (basic consensus the consensus algorithm is the rules by which blocks are created in the blockchain layer, formerly Ethereum 2) with the current Ethereum Mainnet (execution layer). 

Ethereum needs to change the consensus level because of: 

• low capacity;
• low transaction rate;
• PoW mechanism is very energy consuming;
• possibility of 51% attack and other PoW vulnerabilities.

What will change? 

The update has been in development for seven years. And it is important not only for developers and specialists in the field, but also for ordinary users. In the long term, it will lead to the following: 

• power consumption of the Ethereum network will be reduced by more than 99.9% (due to the rejection of PoW mining);
• users storing funds in the Ethereum blockchain will not need to move or otherwise change the way they access their funds after the upgrade;
• transactions will become more secure (to gain control of the blockchain, attackers must control more than 66% of the ETH supplied);
• PoS is more decentralized and censor-resistant;
• the fee per block will drop from ETH 12800 to ETH 1280 per day;
• Ethereum blockchain will be more environmentally friendly in the future;
• there will be no need for expensive mining installations.

It’s worth mentioning that the merge is not the endpoint on the project roadmap. Updates are scheduled for 2023, introducing sharding, a more efficient way of distributing transactions in blocks, to further scale the network and provide additional security.