All eyes on crypto are on the merge—and not just the Ethereum crowd. The event matters for Bitcoiners and everyone else.
He [won't share his view](https://decrypt.co/103926/sec-chair-gensler-bitcoin-not-security-what-about-ethereum). [doesn't mind the CFTC having oversight of it](https://decrypt.co/109275/sec-chair-gary-gensler-backs-giving-cftc-bitcoin-oversight). [image and perception](https://decrypt.co/109032/how-will-the-ethereum-merge-affect-bitcoins-image). There are people ( [louder and prouder than ever](https://decrypt.co/109218/inside-the-worlds-first-no-coiner-conference)) who [will never come around on crypto](https://decrypt.co/90004/13-years-of-bitcoin-hate-remains-matt-damon), no matter what. [Ethereum merge](https://decrypt.co/rollup/the-ethereum-merge-is-finally-coming-heres-everything-you-need-to-know) is upon us. It will also leave Bitcoin alone (without Ethereum as a fellow offender) in the sights of regulators who are [targeting](https://decrypt.co/109283/white-house-bitcoin-mining-greener-ban) energy-intensive proof-of-work blockchains. It is widely believed that Gensler and the current SEC regime see ETH as a security, despite what former SEC official [Bill Hinman said back in 2018](https://decrypt.co/76100/ripple-wins-ruling-depose-sec-director-who-said-eth-was-not-security). SEC Chair Gary Gensler continues to declare that Bitcoin is not a security and that he Once Ethereum is running proof of stake, they lose that part of their value proposition. The merge will make the Ethereum blockchain almost immediately faster, more scalable, and 99% more energy-efficient. The most prominent reaction has been Ethereum’s promised launch of 'Ethereum 2.0,' which uses a PoS consensus mechanism." With the Beacon Chain, the community has built a new engine and a hardened hull.
On September 15, 2022, the Ethereum network will adopt the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in place of its current proof-of-work (PoW) system.
It will have far-reaching effects on the rest of the crypto industry. The Ethereum merge is a huge event in the cryptoverse. On September 15, 2022, the Ethereum network will adopt the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in place of its current proof-of-work (PoW) system. Many wondered if such solutions would still be required after the transition to PoS and the eventual adoption of sharding somewhere in 2023. Google has added a countdown to the Ethereum merge. It is a momentous event that perhaps the entire cryptoverse has been waiting for years.
Ethereum is currently the second most important blockchain in the world after Bitcoin and it is on the verge of going through a major transformation.
The switch towards a more environment friendly technology will mean that Ethereum will get rid of crypto miners and their machines which are mostly responsible for the energy consumption. The developers have been working on creating a new version of the Ethereum blockchain which will be much more energy efficient. It is a step towards environmentally friendly crypto technology, and it can soon become the norm.
Ethereum PoS could open a window for unscrupulous validators to exploit the network, a security researcher warns.
The transition to PoS is set to make the Ethereum network more scalable and energy-efficient. It's still a very secure system,” he added. As a result, the security researcher argues that Ethereum will be forgoing some strength in security when the Merge takes effect: The researcher explained that an exploit could theoretically occur on the post-Merge Ethereum blockchain if validators manage to line up two consecutive blocks to validate. The security expert, who asked not to be named, is a blockchain developer and security researcher working on a proof-of-stake layer-2 blockchain. Despite the Ethereum Merge being touted as a major upgrade to the blockchain network, its transition to proof-of-stake theoretically makes it more vulnerable to exploit.
The Ethereum merge may be a defining moment for crypto as it will be the first time that a blockchain changes its consensus mechanism.
In the event of a hard fork, standard Ether and Micro Ether futures shall continue to settle to the ETHUSD_RR corresponding to the original token pair (ETHUSD). Ether options will offer institutional investors greater flexibility and added precision to manage their ether exposure ahead of market moving events. The settlement date for the September contract is Friday, September 30, suitably after the anticipated merge date. If consensus isn’t achieved, stakeholders may propose a so-called “hard fork” or permanent spilt of the blockchain, resulting in two distinct chains: The“old” PoW chain and a new token currently being dubbed “ETHPOW”. If the hard fork is deemed significant, CF Benchmarks will launch a new, but separate, index on the new token pair. Therefore, should there be any unusual activity at any spot exchange, the daily reference rate shall be calculated in a reliable and representative manner. As a last resort, should there be market-wide outages, the index administrator, CF Benchmarks (CFB), shall announce a Market Failure Event on its website. The Ethereum merge may be a defining moment for crypto as it could be the first time that a blockchain changes its consensus mechanism. These planned “downtimes” will permit the platforms to verify a successful transition from PoW to PoS on the Ethereum Mainnet. [CME CF Ether-Dollar reference rate](https://docs-cfbenchmarks.s3.amazonaws.com/CME+CF+Reference+Rates+Methodology.pdf) (ETHUSD_RR), which underpins the suite of [CME Ether and Micro Ether futures and options](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/cryptocurrencies/ether/ether.html) contracts, is calculated by taking executed spot market transactions, in the ETHUSD pair, from six constituent exchanges: Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini, itBit, Kraken and LMAX Digital, during a one-hour calculation window, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. However, they will be subject to the standard One of the most anticipated and important developments in crypto history is happening in September.
As we begin the countdown to the completion of Ethereum's merge, key voices from CoinSpot, eToro and Crowdz tell readers everything they...
This is set to be addressed after the merge with a process called sharding. We’ve seen a lot of issues from proof-of-stake platforms like Solana and others, but bitcoin’s security as proof-of-work is unmatched. Trusted exchanges will never ask you for this information, including over the phone. Environmentally, The Merge signals a win. It will reduce the energy requirements by 99.5%, addressing a major flaw in the sustainability of cryptocurrencies. For miners, The Merge is not great news. Formerly known as Ethereum 2.0, the Ethereum merge will happen in a matter of days. It’s supposed to mark the beginning of reduced gas fees and faster transaction speeds. Therefore, investors should remember to take a long-term mindset when looking at crypto assets. For ETH users and investors, The Merge is hoped to be a win. At this stage, any other forked ETH chains are said to not be followed in the industry, so this is something retail investors should look out for. The Merge has been hyped up as a revolutionary milestone because, well, it is.
As the Merge approaches (VERY SOON!), Ethereum will transition to proof of stake. In the event of this, the Google Search engine is celebrating with an ...
So the bears are a well-known fixture of Ethereum Merge meme culture. Sam Padilla, a Google Cloud developer, announced the Ethereum Merge countdown clock. As the Merge approaches (VERY SOON!), Ethereum will transition to proof of stake.
The Ethereum upgrade may bring more regulatory scrutiny on Bitcoin for its energy consumption. While there could be pressure on Bitcoin, there won't be much ...
After the Ethereum integration, only 23 percent of the total crypto volumes will be based on PoW, mostly Bitcoin. “If we look at investor trends, however, no one holds their bigger capital in Ethereum – people will hold big capital in Bitcoin,” said Raj Kapoor, founder of the India Blockchain Alliance. To add to that, people who make tons of money out of Bitcoin farming will most likely oppose this kind of proposal,” he said. “Even if a group of people decided to implement that change, it would be very difficult to get more than 51 percent of the votes on a network. “Bitcoin isn’t likely to become more sustainable any time soon,” said Digiconomist, a science and technology publication that tracks Bitcoin energy consumption. This contrasts with PoW, which uses a lot of energy to mine tokens by using computers to solve mathematical equations.
The Ethereum Merge is one of the most significant upgrades on the Ethereum blockchain network. The merge marks the transition of the Ethereum blockchain ...
The Ethereum Foundation has clarified on multiple occasions that the upcoming merge of the Ethereum Mainnet and the Beacon Chain will not have any direct impact on the price of the Ether token, which is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network. The Ethereum Merge is one of the most significant upgrades on the Ethereum blockchain network. The Ethereum Foundation also says that the update will add more scalability and security along with sustainability to the blockchain network.
According to Google Trends, Singapore, Cyrus, China, Switzerland and Netherlands are the nations with the greatest interest in Ethereum Merge, ...
The Ethereum Merge will undoubtedly provide numerous benefits to developers and end users. It will all depend on demand and supply, when more people use the blockchain the gas fee charges will be high, when less use it, the fee will reduce. According to the Ethereum Foundation, the organisation behind the Ethereum blockchain, The Merge will have no “significantly change any parameters that directly influence network capacity or throughput”.
Crypto enthusiasts say a shift in how ethereum — the second-most popular blockchain — works could revolutionize digital currencies.
It takes thousands of computers to verify transactions on the ethereum blockchain, a mechanism known as "proof of [work](https://ethereum.org/en/energy-consumption/)." After the Merge, the Mainnet version will disappear and financial transactions will only live on Beacon. [said](https://ethereum.org/en/upgrades/merge/#wen-merge) they're giving themselves a September 19 deadline to apply the finishing touches. Put simply, the Merge aims to reduce the number of people and computers it takes to add another data block to the ethereum network. The Merge replaces the proof-of-work system with an alternative approach called "proof of stake." Since December 2020, ethereum developers have been running essentially two different versions of the blockchain at the same time. Because proof of stake involves fewer people using their computers to verify transactions, fewer terawatt-hours are burned. The Merge is happening now because ethereum is mature enough to handle financial payments, store non-fungible tokens, trade crypto and host smart contracts, said blockchain expert Merav Ozair. That level of energy consumption releases about 53 metric tons of harmful carbon emissions into the environment annually, the same amount Singapore produces in a year. Crypto enthusiasts say the Merge will greatly reduce the environmental impact of It's one of the world's most used blockchains, second only to the bitcoin network. There are more than 71 million crypto wallets on the ethereum blockchain today,
Ethereum's switch could cut the platform's carbon emissions by 99 per cent and cause regulators to put more pressure on energy-hungry Bitcoin mining.
Marchesoni, who mines Ether herself, said the costly equipment is not a total waste as you can find alternative coins to mine on PoS that are compatible. De Vries also does not believe Merge will cause the latest crypto bull run. De Vries says he is working on figuring out how much the switch will save energy. The only thing that increases your chance of winning is just getting more coins. Both mechanisms are used to confirm transactions and add new blocks to the chain, but they work differently. The Ethereum development team Nethermind said on September 10 that it had completed the prerequisite shadow fork test, which stress-tests synchronisation assumptions to ensure network safety.
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The Merge will see Ethereum move from proof of work to proof of stake, and ETH holders might end up with ETHPoW and ETHPoS tokens. Read what investors need ...
The technical change brings with it a wealth of questions, including what sort of precedent it sets for rival blockchains that are sticking to their proof-of- ...
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An employee wearing a protective face mask inspects Sapphire Technology Ltd. AMD graphics processing units. When it comes to Ethereum's Merge, determining just ...
For context, the value of Ethereum Classic is about 2% of Ethereum’s worth today, so there isn’t much incentive for miners to switch to mining this much smaller network. So while the Merge will ease at least some of crypto’s strain on the grid and reduce the associated carbon pollution, “it’s not like things are going to change that much,” Webber said, from an overall energy use perspective. What that means for miners is that the cost of running these machines would likely be greater than the potential payout. Miners looking to offload their out-of-work rigs aren’t likely to get much in return for them, increasing the odds of them being tossed out. Most of those mines could simply dump their Ethereum GPUs and install mining rigs for another blockchain, likely bitcoin, which consumes much more energy than Ethereum. When it comes to Ethereum’s Merge, determining just how much e-waste will be added to the world’s growing pile is unclear but still troubling. Miners could also mutiny and continue mining Ethereum via proof-of-work, creating another fork in the blockchain. Crypto mining’s monster carbon footprint comes courtesy of the GPUs used to do the calculations that keep the blockchain secure, all running at the same time. If successful, this will be a huge win for the climate; the Merge is projected to cut energy consumption tied to mining These suddenly useless rigs could be chucked in the trash, contributing to our mounting e-waste problem, or repurposed in other ways and continuing to fuel the climate crisis. An open question post-Merge is what will become of the hardware used to mine ether, which will essentially become stranded assets. [37,000 tons](https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption) of electronic waste per year, an amount roughly on par with the Netherlands.
Google's countdown clock focused on the "Merge" doubled down on previous estimations that the move will get completed soon.
[revealed](https://cryptopotato.com/study-reveals-the-most-interested-country-in-the-ethereum-merge/)that the residents of Singapore are the most interested in the upcoming development, while Switzerland, Canada, Germany, and the US follow shortly after. The search engine’s estimations match previous ones, indicating that “the Merge” will see the light of day on September 15. The move is expected to be finalized on September 15.
With the ETH/BTC ratio trading at previous highs, some have started to unwind their long ETH/short BTC trade, one researcher said.
CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of [Digital Currency Group](https://dcg.co/), which invests in [cryptocurrencies](https://dcg.co/#digital-assets-portfolio) and blockchain [startups](https://dcg.co/portfolio/). [strict set of editorial policies](/ethics/). As prices were rising, this is a sign that many traders would rather own the stETH than participate in the airdrop," Thielen noted. Ethereum has now narrowed to just -2.8% and might offer better value for Ethereum investors as any PoW fork will unlikely lead to a significant airdrop." The dominance rate crashed from roughly 49% to 39% in nearly three months to Sept. Bitcoin's dominance rate refers to the leading cryptocurrency's share in the broader crypto market. Early this quarter, traders snapped up ether and sold futures to collect a potential Ethereum fork token ETHPoW for free without directional risks. The level of 0.08 has capped the upside multiple times since May 2018. "The discount between staked Ethereum on Lido vs. The momentum has weakened since then, however, perhaps with traders lightening their ETH long and BTC short positions. Beta adjusted, bitcoin has outperformed ether during the last week," Markus Thielen, chief investment officer at British Virgin Islands-based IDEG Asset Management, said in an email. Ether's underperformance stems from traders rotating money out of ETH and into BTC, some observers told CoinDesk.
More crypto traders are shorting Ether in the derivatives market, as the underlying blockchain is scheduled to go through its biggest technical upgrade this ...
Bitcoin is heralded as the flagship cryptocurrency by many across the world. However, the number one alt, Ethereum, has been leading...
However, the number one alt, [Ethereum](https://ambcrypto.com/category/ethereum-news/), has been leading the crypto bear market in the past two months. “Three days ago, there was a cross-over, which means that Bitcoin started to be more dominant on exchanges in terms of trading volume. On 12 September, the ratio climbed above one to indicate growing profitability across Bitcoin addresses. This is because of the much-talked-about Merge which is set to take place around 14 September. [change](https://ambcrypto.com/eth-vs-btc-a-change-of-scenario-in-the-futures-market-has-left-btc-at-2/) in the futures market in August as Ethereum brushed past Bitcoin in futures trading volume. [Bitcoin](https://ambcrypto.com/category/bitcoin-news/)
Ethereum is struggling to reclaim its August high ahead of the Merge while Bitcoin is posting daily gains.
The Merge is expected to ship early on September 15, but ETH has yet to reclaim its August high of $2,015. “The ratio” refers to the amount of ETH it costs to buy one BTC. Bitcoin touched a months-long high of almost $65,000 on April 14, 2021, when Coinbase [held](https://cryptobriefing.com/coinbase-marks-ipo-with-memo-on-bitcoin-blockchain/) its initial public offering on Nasdaq before crashing for weeks. Dogecoin, meanwhile, took a big hit after Elon Musk [performed](https://cryptobriefing.com/will-elon-musks-snl-appearance-boost-dogecoin/) a highly-anticipated “Dogefather” skit on Saturday Night Live on May 8, 2021. The ratio previously touched 0.053 in June before ETH led a market-wide rally; for ETH:BTC to revisit the low of its range, it would have to decline another 33.49%. [told Bankless](https://cryptobriefing.com/ethereum-merge-trade-no-brainer-bitmex-co-founder-arthur-hayes/) last week that he was optimistic about how the Merge could affect ETH’s price, but he admitted it could suffer in the short term if investors sell on the Merge news. [currently trading](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin) at $22,229. Bitcoin has shown strength since it broke through support at $18,600 Wednesday; the top cryptocurrency has since climbed by almost 20%. Ethereum, meanwhile, is [changing hands](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum) for $1,715 after suffering a 3.3% dip. [“flippening”](https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/flippening/) on the horizon after all. Interestingly, the ETH:BTC ratio has trended down after hitting a 2022 high of 0.085 Wednesday. Bitcoin is soaring against Ethereum in the lead-up to "the Merge."
The Ethereum Merge is the joining of Ethereum's Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Beacon Chain with the Ethereum Mainnet.
ETH 2 is not a new cryptocurrency, and ETH will remain the only Ethereum native cryptocurrency. “ETH 2” simply refers to the new Proof-of-Stake blockchain that will go live as Ethereum’s main blockchain network after the merge. It will become fully operational as the updated Ethereum blockchain after the merge is completed. Scammers may try to take advantage of this confusion and try to get users to swap out their current ETH for “ETH 2,” but in reality they would be stealing the user’s Ether.6 For example, if a potential attacker is in line to propose one of the next blocks in the blockchain, they can attempt to DoS (a sophisticated networking attack) of the current proposer's node, causing them to lose their slot, and the transactions in that slot can be picked up by the attacker. This will result in a 99.95% reduction in Ethereum’s energy consumption, and the ability to further scale the Ethereum ecosystem.1 It will result in [Ethereum 2.0](https://www.investopedia.com/ethereum-2-0-6455959), a new version of Ethereum. The block rewards from that node are then shared with the staking pool in proportion to the deposited ETH per individual account.5 Crypto exchanges also offer a version of this, allowing users to stake small amounts in return for a fixed rewards amount. This Ether will be locked up until a future upgrade to the network enables withdrawals. Since inception, Ethereum has been secured with a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, requiring hardware processing power to solve complicated math equations in a competitive process to mine the next block in the Ethereum blockchain. The Beacon Chain is the controller of the Ethereum PoS network, managing the entire process of the PoS protocol and coordinating parallel chains (shards).7 There are solutions being worked on to make the proposer selection anonymous, but this is currently still a risk. Currently, there are about 13,000 Ether mined per day.
By Frances Yue. Google has added an Ethereum countdown clock ahead of the highly anticipated update. The crypto industry is closely watching Ethereum's ...
Traders have been busy positioning themselves ahead of the merge, especially after Ethereum miner Chandler Guo in late July proposed to "hard fork" the Ethereum blockchain,or splitting the chain into a duplicate version based on the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Meanwhile, the Merge alsois anticipated to reduce new issuance of ether by 90%, according to the Ethereum foundation. The Bellatrix hard fork, which marks the start of the Merge, was activated on Sept. 15, though the exact date depends on hashrate, or the total networking power contributed to the network. However, the timeline is subject to change, Beiko noted. Thus, the whole crypto industry is watching to see if it will overcome significant technical challenges to implement the Merge successfully. Meanwhile, Ethereum is the largest blockchain for decentralized finance, or DeFi, with more than $35 billion value locked on it, according to data from Defi Llama. Ethereum's total energy consumption stands at about 78.6 TWh a year, comparable to the power consumption of Chile, and the blockchain's carbon emission is comparable to that of Hong Kong. Ether's market cap stands at $202 billion, while that of bitcoin is about $411 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The crypto industry is closely watching Ethereum's "Merge," a highly anticipated upgrade that is expected to be completed around Thursday, Sept. If successful, the upgrade is anticipated to lower the blockchain's carbon footprint, reduce ether supplyand potentially have a profound impact on the whole crypto ecosystem. Why is it called the Merge?
Although the Bellatrix update was deemed successful, 5% of validators went offline during the activation. This resulted in a 9%, or 1 in 10, missed block rate, ...
[Cardano](/crypto/cardano/ada-usd?cid=1055297) and [Polygon](/crypto/polygon/matic-usd) are the exceptions, with $0.4 million inflows each. Nonetheless, the Merge is a pioneering undertaking and should be treated as such. Of course, the success of Polygon ultimately depends on Ethereum. The increase from the typical 0.5% missed block rate to 9% is an 18x risk increase that cannot be ignored. Due to the complexity of syncing thousands of clients and terabytes of data, however, it is inevitable that bugs pop up. Argo Blockchain said its mining profit fell to 20% in August,... This is peculiar because the Merge is practically set in stone. Moreover, some people had the “glass is half-full” outlook. There seems to be an agreement among Ethereum developers that not much can go wrong, which can’t be recovered from. Block rate refers to the time frame validators need to verify transaction’s one block and add it to the blockchain, as an immutable public ledger. Dubbed Paris, the docking will remove miners from its ecosystem and replace them with ~99% more energy-efficient validators. [Saved Items](/members-admin/saved-items)
Described as among the most important days in crypto, the ethereum blockchain this week adopts proof of stake -- lowering its carbon footprint by 99%.
Critics of ethereum -- typically bitcoin enthusiasts -- compare the merge to changing the engine of an airplane in the middle of a passenger flight. "There are a lot of tech companies that have openly said, 'we are not going to do anything until after the Merge.'" The Merge is currently schedued to go ahead between Sept. Whereas a bad actor needs 51% of a network's power to overrun a proof-of-work system, they'd need 51% of the total staked ether to overrun the proof-of-stake system. In the run-up to the Merge, ethereum developers have been stress testing the new blockchain by running data and transactions through it on various ethereum testnets. "From speaking to ethereum developers, they've felt confident that had proof-of-work mining been, say, banned overnight, they could do the Merge even months ago and it would work," Charbonneau said. The beacon chain is essentially the new ethereum. The network is made up of hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, meaning bad guys would need to control 51% of the power in this vast mining pool. Other times, as in the case of a proof-of-stake blockchain, staked cryptocurrency helps secure a protocol. The beguiling metaphor beguiles the importance of the Ethereum Merge to everyone, not just cryptocurrency supporters. The system is secure. It takes a powerful computer to have a chance in this race, and people typically set up warehouses full of rigs for this purpose.
Not a moment too soon, plans for the Ethereum proof-of-work hardfork are announced in a bid to preserve lucrative mining.
ETHW has fallen 49% from its all-time high of $141.36 on August 8 to a current trading value of $29.52, according to [CoinMarketCap](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum-pow/). "And no one would take it seriously if it's not a continuous / non-stop chain." 'Safety' would be a better reason." “It's like losing 90% of momentum just on launch," he wrote. will be made public when the time’s up.” “The exact time will be announced 1 hour before launch with a countdown timer, and everything including final code, binaries, config files, nodes info, RPC, explorer, etc.
Uncertainty over the Ethereum Merge may have driven the latest week of outflows from Ether-based investment products, says CoinShares head of research James ...
15 at about 3:20am UTC time, according to Blocknative. 5-11 week — leading to the market’s fifth consecutive week of outflows. Ethereum is about to get a 99% cut in issuance and a 99.9% cut in energy usage, the merge is not priced in— 4936 (@punk4936) 6.](https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-s-bellatrix-upgrade-hiccups-jangle-nerves-but-it-ll-be-right-on-the-night) [last week’s 73.5% “Merge ready” rate](https://cointelegraph.com/news/74-of-ethereum-nodes-merge-ready-ahead-of-bellatrix-upgrade). [ETH](https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-price)), signaling concerns about the success of the upgrade.
The fork will occur 24 hours following the Merge, according to an @EthereumPoW Twitter thread.
The Merge is a technological overhaul of the Ethereum blockchain that will shift its protocol from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of [Digital Currency Group](https://dcg.co/), which invests in [cryptocurrencies](https://dcg.co/#digital-assets-portfolio) and blockchain [startups](https://dcg.co/portfolio/). Market cap and trade volumes will have the answer to this question in a few weeks. Merge block +2049 will be the first to note any transactions on ETHW. [strict set of editorial policies](/ethics/). The Merge is expected to take place on Thursday.