THE ETHEREUM’S MERGE: DEBUNKING COMMON MYTHS
All eyes are on the Ethereum’s Merge as the world’s largest smart contract platform is about to make a transition from PoW to PoS.
⏳ The Merge will be triggered once the Terminal Total Difficulty threshold is reached. It is expected to happen on Thursday, September 15th (but some delay may happen).
Why is it news #1?
Well, judge for yourself:
▪️ Six years in the making
▪️ A milestone in the history of cryptocurrency due to the potential material and philosophical implications
▪️ Could bolster market confidence and inject some much-needed optimism after months of market volatility
▪️ A proof that a decentralized and permissionless network can operate in an energy-efficient manner
▪️ An incredibly rare event in crypto and may never happen again
No wonder the informational flood regarding this event is heavy. Of course, some people can get a bit confused or even misled. So let’s finally debunk 7 common myths about the Merge:
? Ethereum will suspend its network
The developers anticipate zero downtime if everything goes well during the transition.
? The Merge will create a new token
The Merge is an upgrade to the Ethereum network, not the beginning of a whole new network or token. After The Merge is complete, ether will remain the Ethereum blockchain’s native asset.
? The Merge will reduce gas fees
The Merge will only bring a shift in consensus, and the network will have to rely on sharding to cut gas fees, the first major post-merge upgrade.
? Ethereum will become more centralized
There is no evidence that Ethereum will become more centralized after it shifts to PoS.
? The Merge will improve the network’s TPS
The Merge will not improve the user experience of Ethereum by much. The shift from PoW to PoS alone will only slightly increase the network’s TPS. Again, it’s sharding that will genuinely boost Ethereum’s performance.
? ETH will be dumped into the market, considering a massive amount of ETH staked released
After the Merge, stakers will not be able to withdraw the ETH staked right away, and their withdrawals will be unlocked in about 6 to 12 months. Furthermore, Ethereum has set a withdrawal/deposit queue.
? The Merge is the same as ETH 2.0
Ethereum’s 2018 roadmap was originally titled “Ethereum 2.0” The terms “Eth2” and “Ethereum 2.0” are phased out now:
– Eth1 officially became the “consensus layer”
– Eth2 officially became the “execution layer”
– The Merge is the event of these two layers combining
