The Ethereum Merge Was Successful

“And we finalized!” This was a tweet by Vitalik Buterin, signaling the successful completion of the merge. The merge has been on the lips of everyone as the days drew nearer. So many speculations have been thrown around about the outcome of the merge.

Transition Successful 

The Ethereum network went through many stages of the merge, finishing up with the Bellatrix update. This last update set the stage for the merge and the Paris upgrade. 

The merge was triggered after reaching the Terminal Total Difficulty of 5890000000000000000000 at exactly 6:54 UTC. The Beacon chain and Ethereum Proof of Work network merged to transition to the Proof of Stake consensus.

Before the merge, there was so much uncertainty about the outcome. There was FUD, FOMO, and consolidation in the ETH market. However, this uncertainty was solved by the smooth completion of the merge.

According to Vitalik, this transition has removed 99.5% of electricity consumption as it now operates on the Proof of Stake network. The merge has reduced worldwide electricity consumption by 0.2%, as this was the aim of the transition.

Celebrations here and there from ETH holders and the public at large as they celebrate this merge. Everyone is looking forward to what is next for Ethereum.

What Next?

With this Proof of Work consensus, the network is safer and can handle over 100,000 transactions per second. However, the price of Eth has not seen any significant leap but has still maintained the $1600 mark.

There were more other happenings outlined. The merge, the surge, the verge, the purge, the splurge. Now that the merge is completed, we will move into the next phase, the Surge.

There are many questions about a reduction in gas fees. As was earlier announced by Vitalik, the merge does not solve the issue of high gas fees. The Ethereum upgrade will handle the problems of gas fees.

According to reports from the merge, the merge only missed one block during the final stage. This was applauded as a reasonable effort from the team as they made this merge go smoothly.

However, some people are still looking out for the ETH POW hard fork set to launch 24 hours after the merge. They stated there are many ways to utilize power and gasses obtained from mining. “Mining is still profitable and should not be out of the market,” they said.