Early on 15 September 2022, the long-awaited Ethereum Merge was completed, switching the world’s second well-nigh popular cryptocurrency from the energy-guzzling proof of piece of work (Pw) consensus algorithm to the more environmentally friendly proof of pale (PoS).




It’due south a momentous occasion. Never earlier has a blockchain transitioned from PoW to PoS, and the move volition reverberate effectually the world—not just the globe of crypto—for some time.

But the big questions are still to come. Questions like, will Ethereum increase in price after the Merge? And will the Merge actually make Ethereum faster?


Here are vii things yous need to know about the Ethereum Merge.



ane. What Is the Ethereum Merge?

The Merge is the official name of the Ethereum blockchain’southward transition from Pow to PoS. Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is well known for its environmental impact, requiring more power than numerous big countries to keep its blockchain up and running and secure. Later switching to PoS, it is idea Ethereum volition eat 99.9 percent less energy.


As gratuitous energy waste is one of the main criticisms of cryptocurrency in general and specifically NFTs (many of which are minted on the Ethereum blockchain), that the Merge will tackle one of the biggest consumers is likely to go down well across the board.




ii. When Did the Ethereum Merge Happen? Is the Merge Complete?

The Ethereum Merge took place on 15 September 2022.


The Merge took years of planning, but as soon as the Ethereum blockchain hit the correct Total Concluding Hard (TTD) of 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000, the transition was instantaneous. At that place was no intermission to kick up different software or load something else; the transition was automated.


ethereum merge complete on sept 15


TTD is the total difficulty sum of all blocks always mined on the Ethereum blockchain. Crypto mining difficulty is equally information technology sounds: the difficulty for mining hardware to notice the next block in the blockchain using the unique hash. Blockchain difficult adjusts automatically based upon the hardware processing power verifying transactions.




3. Will the Ethereum Merge Increase Ethereum’due south Price?

At the time of writing, after the completion of the Merge, there hasn’t been a significant heave to the Ethereum price. While that may be a disappointment for those who expected a sudden surge, most experts long predicted that the toll probably wouldn’t motility much, despite the hype surrounding the outcome.



ethereum price chart showing merge influence


In the long term, Ethereum 2.0 volition get a more deflationary-focused crypto, with the Ethereum block reward falling. Prior to the Merge, around thirteen,000 Ether were issued per day. After the Merge, that figure falls to around i,600 Ether per day.




iv. Volition the Merge Speed Upwards Ethereum Transactions?

Once again, some users might detect this disappointing, only no, the Ethereum Merge isn’t going to speed upward Ethereum transactions. At to the lowest degree, not by much. Before the Merge, the Ethereum blockchain released one new block every 13 or 14 seconds. Later the Merge, that number is expected to fall—to 12 seconds.



5. Will the Merge Reduce Ethereum Gas Fees?

That’s another no. Ethereum’s notorious gas fees are unlikely to autumn straight after the Merge completes. Information technology won’t be until Ethereum 2.0 implements blockchain sharding that users encounter a reduction in on-concatenation gas fees.




6. What Is the Merge Good For? What’south the Signal in the Ethereum Merge?

The biggest modify for the Ethereum blockchain is the wider rollout of staking for Ethereum users. You can now stake 32ETH to become a validator on the Ethereum network, helping to process transactions and secure the network while earning a staking advantage.


And, as mentioned above, the reduction in energy consumption is besides welcome.




7. Tin I Use My Ethereum Now?

Yes, your Ethereum is free for use. There was no intermission between the switch from proof of piece of work to proof of stake. The but affair you may find is that some wallets and exchanges have locked your Ethereum holdings down while they update their sites and services, but it shouldn’t take them long to restore functionality.




The Ethereum Proof of Stake Merge Is Complete

It’s been years in the planning, and the Ethereum 2.0 Merge is finally washed and dusted. Well, saying done and dusted isn’t all at that place is to it, equally the switch to proof of pale is the start of a whole new chapter for Ethereum. As i of the underpinnings for Web 3.0 and as a blockchain that powers hundreds of crypto tokens, the benefits of Ethereum evolution inevitably ripple throughout the crypto world.