The crypto community is excited as The Merge completes, making the migration of the Ethereum network to proof-of-stake (PoS). The event, which took place on Thursday, September 15, 2022, marked the end of the blockchain’s energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mining infrastructure.
A New Era Of Environmentally Crypto
The successful completion of The Merge saw the Ethereum Mainnet execution layer integrate with the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer. The yoking took place at the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) of 58750000 P at a block height of 15537475, implying that the network will no longer rely on a PoW consensus mechanism.
The transition ushers in a new era in the crypto space that is environmentally friendly, with the blockchain expected to consume 99.95% less energy than it did when it was running on PoW. Besides making the network more energy efficient, The Merge sets the stage for future scaling solutions, including sharding.
The crypto community has welcomed the Ethereum Merge as most went to social media platforms to celebrate the event. There were several ‘The Merge watch parties’ on YouTube that saw crypto enthusiasts watch live streams of the possibility that has been described as the “second biggest event in the crypto sphere,” of course, after Satoshi’s whitepaper.
Taking to Twitter, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin celebrated the event saying, “And we finalized! Happy Merge, all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the Merge happen should feel very proud today.”
Vitalik also retweeted a tweet posted by Eric.eth, a Twitter user who describes himself as an Ethereum maximalist who also celebrates the success of the event, saying:
“Can’t say enough about all the builders, researchers, coordinators, and more that made this all happen. It’s an incredible feat to transition a globally used blockchain to PoS without most end users noticing or having to do anything. Truly incredible. Cheers.”
The Merge was not a mean feat. It comes against several years of hard work from the Ethereum Foundation. The thought of such a vast network as the Ethereum blockchain migrating to a different protocol was not frightening.
Its success has silenced critics who have repeatedly raised concerns about the risks blockchain technology poses to the environment. According to estimates, the Ethereum protocol consumed high energy when it ran on PoW, which could have powered Finland for a year.
With The Merge, things have changed for the better as it is set to reduce Ethereum’s carbon footprint dramatically. Vitalik said that Ethereum’s transition to the PoS-powered Ethereum 2.0 “will reduce worldwide electricity consumption by 0.2%.”
The crypto community has welcomed the Ethereum Merge as the crypto market experiences a shake-up. The total crypto market cap is down 0.65% over the past 24 hours to stand at $989 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) has turned down from the $22,800 mark on September 13 to the current value just above $20,000.
Ethereum merge traders bought the rumor and are now selling the news. The second largest crypto by market capitalization is exchanging hands around $1,580, a 3.82% off on the day on Coinbase.
