Ethereum Merge

Ethereum is moving from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake network.

The merge is predicted to happen around September 14-15 and is subject to change. This date & time is a placeholder; Watcher.guru has a tracker here.

DETAILS

• Token:
  • ETH will remain ETH
  • Holders won’t have to claim any new token, there won’t be one
  • The Ether balance of holders will remain the same after the merge
  • Users of Ethereum’s blockchain will be able to resume using it as if nothing has changed
  • Staked Ether will stay locked up with the network until around 6 to 12 months after the merge

• ETHW
  • Miners are forking ETH to keep a PoW version of it to continue mining
  • The forked version of Ethereum’s PoW token is called ETHW
  • ETHW is not official ETH, nor does it belong to the Ethereum Foundation
  • Holders of ETH might be eligible to get an airdrop of this PoW version, created by ether miners
  • This type of airdrop is typically based on a 1:1 ratio
  • Some exchanges are also supportive of this miner’s fork
  • Here is the list of the fork supporting CEXs so far:
    • Binance
    • Coinbase
    • FTX
    • Nexo

• Chain:
  • Ethereum presented the PoS network called the Beacon Chain back in 2020
  • Its complete transition to PoS requires a merge of the Beacon Chain with the PoW mainnet
  • According to their Foundation, the merge will cut the network’s energy use by 99.95%
  • Ethereum transaction fees are not expected to change as a result of the merge
  • The Terminal Total Difficulty value for the merge has been set at 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000
  • When the TTD number is reached, the network will fuse its PoW layer with the new PoS layer
  • At the merge’s time, the difficulty level on Ethereum’s PoW network will rise to the point where mining new blocks will no longer be feasible
  • The realization of the merge will honor the end of Ethereum’s energy-intensive proof-of-work chapter
  • PoS is designed to deliver speed and scalability without a massive environmental impact
  • The shift to PoS lets the blockchain test with a new technology called sharding
  • Sharding allows blockchains to split their network into smaller pieces to help increase scalability

• Security Measures:
  • There might be more than just one fork of the Ethereum’s PoW version, be careful with the airdrops you receive, as some might be scams that want you to interact with their token to get your signature/keys
  • Scammers will try to take advantage of knowledge gaps, be aware that:
    • Tokens like ETH2, ETH2.0, and different comparable-sounding interpretations don’t exist
    • Users don’t need to send their current ETH tokens anywhere during or after the transition