Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has been tweeting regularly this past week addressing the Merge where Ethereum moves from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). The transition is expected to extend the runway for Ethereum which is the most popular smart contract platform in the open blockchain world. The transition will also dramatically reduce the energy consumption and transaction times for the Ethereum blockchain – long a sticking point for detractors of the distributed ledger technology. Some have claimed that the Merge will reduce worldwide electricity consumption by a whopping 0.2% – obviously, this is a difficult percentage to estimate but the point has been made.
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.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022
The Merge will also up Ethereum’s game against the growing number of challengers seeking to offer a better ecosystem able to handle transactions at scale.
A successful ETHMerge is absolutely massive for the entire crypto space.
Hats off 🫡 to the team for executing with the world watching. A historic moment that kept a bullet train on the tracks toward a brighter future for everyone. pic.twitter.com/NkhXhBvsV9
— ║Ꮓ║ (@PlaywinGirl) September 15, 2022
In recent weeks some industry insiders questioned whether the Merge would be pulled off without a hitch as of this moment, Ethereum is performing up to expectations and congratulations are pouring in across the blockchain world.
One important corollary of this is better EIP 1559 performance (because fewer blocks bump up against the 2x limit). So far, the percentage of full blocks has dropped from ~20% to ~10%.https://t.co/qmCkqzYn2z https://t.co/8ZzlPunGEZ
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022
So what’s next? Well, the fork of Ethereum which will maintain the PoW process is poised to enter the crypto-sphere in the coming hours. Platforms have been determining how they will manage this fork for weeks now. It is not a foregone conclusion the fork will succeed but then, this is the crypto world.
The latest estimate from the core is about 5 hours to publish the final everything.
Take some rest, it's a long day. And we'll keep you updated here! https://t.co/M8AReIlyzD
— EthereumPoW (ETHW) Official (@EthereumPoW) September 15, 2022
Additionally, Ethereum competitors will not sit still and simply observe – challengers will be upping their game. The regulated world is winning the distributed ledger conversation – most importantly securities, inevitably most digital assets will fall under some sort of regulatory oversight. This will take some time as the transition from centralized to distributed processes remains in the early days.