The Ethereum ecosystem has ushered in a new era for the second-largest blockchain. The Ethereum Merge, the largest modification ever, took effect today. According to industry experts, the Merge has changed the game for the entire crypto sector.
The historic upgrade disregards the miners who had previously driven the blockchain with promises of substantial environmental advantages. All indications are that the “Ethereum Merge,” as it has been dubbed, was a success thus far.
The first ever proof-of-stake block of transactions has been completed with a client participation rate close to 100%. This was the best-case scenario by a long shot. It wasn’t easy swapping out one way of running a blockchain, called proof-of-work, for another method known as proof-of-stake.
Ethereum Merge just went live
The long-anticipated Merge has now taken place, and history has been made. At block 15537393 on September 15, 2022, at 06:42:42 UTC, the Ethereum mainnet execution layer and the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer were merged. The network difficulty at the Terminal was 58750000000000000000000, and it will no longer use a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism.
After the Ethereum merge, the price of ETH went up about 3% and is currently being traded at around $1,593 based on data from CoinMarketCap. The Ethereum Foundation claims that the Merge will make the Ethereum network 99.95 percent more energy efficient and set the stage for future scalability solutions, such as sharding.
A total of nine teams worked on the Merge for years, with more than one hundred developers in total. In the coming hours, this decentralized network of programmers will be Monitoring the rollout, and if needed, they will debug any issues as fast as possible.
The hard work of the Ethereum Foundation has paid off. Businesses developing Ethereum-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) have been occupied with making changes as a result of the Ethereum Merge.
What changes does the Ethereum Merge usher in?
The ethereum network’s update fundamentally changes the blockchain process to ensure a secure network and validate transactions. Most of these changes are happening behind the scenes, and the best indicator of a successful upgrade is whether or not the user notices a change in the days and hours ahead.
Not only does the upgrade improve Ethereum, but it also modifies how tokenomics work with ether- making it more than just a speculative investment. It becomes an asset that can generate returns.
Ether takes on some of the characteristics of a traditional financial asset, such as a certificate of deposit, which pays interest to holders in this post-merge era.
The upgrade will also result in a significantly reduced ether token supply, potentially making it a deflationary currency. This could attract more investors and help drive up the price of the token.
The network is also burning or permanently eliminating a part of the digital currency that would otherwise be recycled back into circulation as part of an upgrade that went into effect in August 2021.
Crypto celebrations cut across the decentralized market
As the Ethereum (ETH) Mainnet Merge approached its end, co-founder Vitalik Buterin joined the “Ethereum Mainnet Merge Viewing Party” Livestream hosted by the Ethereum Foundation to share his final thoughts. Asked if he was looking forward to the Merge, Buterin said he was incredibly excited about being freed from the proof-of-work era.
The Ethereum community took advantage of the successful shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) by releasing artwork and music inspired by Ethereum. Acclaimed NFT artist Beeple recently commemorated the Ethereum Merge by releasing an illustration depicting a massive, slowly-forming Ethereum logo, assisted by what looks like scientists.
A community member passionate about street art and illustration created a beautiful piece of work consisting of two Ether logos with a static visual effect over them. The artist also added celebratory undertones to the artwork by writing “the time has come” in the description.
Meanwhile, an NFT collection called I Survived the Merge included adorable saplings that said humorous things like “the Merge was my idea” or “Merge Deez.” The ETH Pandas collection debuted NFTs of various artworks depicting the species chosen by the community to represent the Merge — the Panda.
A community member not only added artwork but also decided to add a touch of nostalgia by creating a music video for a song that was inspired by Merge. Jonathan Mann sang a song about the history of Ethereum to commemorate the Merge. Mann praised the Merge with his musical talent.
The Ethereum Merge has attracted con artists and impostors, with social media becoming clogged with bad actors attempting to profit from it. On Twitter and other channels, various types of scams are being perpetrated, and users are advised not to get caught.
One of the most prevalent forms of fraud, which has been around for a long time, is when bad actors pose as Vitalik Buterin and provide links under the guise of allowing people to receive free ETH. These hyperlinks entice users into handing over control of their cryptocurrencies.
