It’s official, the Merge is a success. Ethereum, the second largest crypto by market cap, will no longer rely on a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to verify transactions.
The historic event took place on 15 September at 06:42:42 UTC at block 15537393. Ethereum’s mainnet execution layer has merged with the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer at the Terminal Total Difficulty of 58750000000000000000000.
An “Ethereum Mainnet Merge Viewing Party,” streamed by Ethereum Foundation, was watched by over 41,000 people on YouTube, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin participated in the livestream.
Soon after, he took to Twitter to celebrate the event.
Ethereum’s price has gotten a slight lift following the Merge, according to hourly metrics from Trading View. However, it is too soon to say much about the Merge’s longer term implications on ETH price.
Ethereum’s green era begins
With the successful completion of the Merge, Ethereum steps into a new era, a green one. The crypto is expected to consume 99.9% less energy hereafter. The fact that a crypto this huge will drop it’s energy use so drastically is a huge advance for the community as well as the environment.
The newfound eco-friendliness of Ethereum has to do with the network severing ties with the power-hungry PoW consensus mechanism. PoW continues to be used by the the world’s largest and most recognizable crypto, Bitcoin.
A word of caution
While much of the crypto ecosystem is celebrating Ethereum’s win, some bad actors are trying to scam people. Several fake accounts of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin promising “free ETHs” have emerged. Here’s a note of caution from our editor-in-chief.
There are always bad eggs in every basket, so don’t let that dampen your spirits. Strengthen your DYOR skills and don’t fall for scams. Happy Merge, everyone!
