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Ethereum merge

Ethereum’s Alarming Centralization Surge After Merge: JPMorgan Report

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Ethereum (ETH) has experienced a surge in staking activity following the implementation of the Merge and Shanghai upgrades, but this growth comes at a price. A recent research report by JPMorgan (JPM) highlights the trade-offs that Ethereum faces as it seeks to balance staking adoption with concerns over centralization and yield.

The report underscores how Ethereum’s journey towards staking has led to increased centralization. The network’s shift towards staking has inadvertently concentrated control over staked ether in the hands of a few major operators. This centralization has raised concerns within the crypto community, as it contradicts the ethos of decentralization that underpins blockchain technology.

In response to these centralization concerns, decentralized liquid staking platforms like Lido have gained prominence. Lido has actively worked to mitigate centralization risks by adding more node operators. This strategy aims to prevent any single entity from wielding excessive influence over the network.

However, even with efforts to decentralize, the report cautions that any degree of centralization poses inherent risks. A concentrated number of liquidity providers or node operators could potentially act as single points of failure, become vulnerable to attacks, or collude to create an oligopoly, which could undermine the interests of the broader Ethereum community.

Ethereum’s Rehypothecation Risk

Another risk highlighted by JPMorgan is the phenomenon of rehypothecation. This occurs when liquidity tokens from staking are reused as collateral across multiple decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. If a staked asset experiences a significant drop in value or is compromised due to malicious attacks or protocol errors, it could trigger a cascade of liquidations across DeFi platforms.

Moreover, the report points out that the appeal of Ethereum from a yield perspective has diminished as staking has gained popularity. The total staking yield has decreased from 7.3% before the Shanghai upgrade to approximately 5.5%. This reduction in yield has occurred at a time when traditional financial assets are offering increasingly attractive yields, making Ethereum’s value proposition less compelling for some investors.

In conclusion, Ethereum’s foray into staking has ushered in a new era for the network, but it has also raised critical concerns. The delicate balance between decentralization and centralization risks, along with the challenges posed by rehypothecation and reduced yield, presents a complex landscape for Ethereum to navigate as it continues to evolve. The crypto community and Ethereum’s development teams must work collaboratively to address these issues and ensure the long-term sustainability and resilience of the network.

Chipotle honors Ethereum’s PoS through 99.95% “Proof of Steak” discount

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Chipotle, a well-known restaurant business, emerged in the cryptocurrency world in 2021 when it gave away $100,000 in bitcoin for National Burrito Day. The platform then continued to add additional items to its giveaway list over the course of the following few months. More recently, the switch to proof-of-stake [PoS] on the Ethereum network appeared to have captured Chipotle’s attention.

For a very long period, the Ethereum network and its eagerly awaited update, the Merge, have drawn attention. This ground-breaking upgrade altered a wide range of factors both inside and outside the ETH ecosystem.

The well-known restaurant establishment announced in its most recent Twitter thread that its steak bowl will be discounted by a staggering 99.95 percent. The tweet from Chipotle undoubtedly perplexed the neighborhood. However, the company emphasized that this offer took into account the fact that the Ethereum network now consumes 99.95% less energy as a result of the Merge.

Payments platform Flexa noted in a Medium post that the deal was only valid through October 4th. However, in order to take advantage of the promotion, consumers would need to spend ETH at Chipotle.

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The post further stated,

Now until October 4, when you use Flexa to spend ETH at any Chipotle restaurant in the US, you’ll save 99.95% off your purchase — an amount equal to the projected overall energy savings from Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake consensus.

Chipotle’s offer too good to be true?

While the offer did attract many, quite a few others thought it was a hassle. Many others grumbled about having to download an app, make a brand-new account, and go through the entire login process. Numerous people continued to complain about the app’s malfunction or the store’s ignorance of the offer even after this.

Others pointed out that while they would have received free lunch through Chipotle’s most recent program, they would have ended up paying a lot for gas.

But it appeared that most Crypto Twitter users took advantage of the offer. The Chipotle comment section was covered in images of the bowl. At the time of writing, Ethereum was trading at $1276.95 and had taken a plunge of 0.41% over the last 24 hours.

Ethereum’s core devs got their eyes on Shanghai upgrade

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The merge finally transpired after years of waiting. Ethereum’s historic switch to proof of stake occurred early on Thursday morning without a hitch.

The Ethereum merge dominated the attention and energy of the network’s elite cadre of core engineers for almost half a decade, with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of digital assets on the line and no room for error.

Ethereum’s core developers won’t meet in groups or make decisions regarding the network’s future for the next two to three weeks. This break from rapid-fire decision-making, though, won’t last long.

The network’s core developers will have to decide together within the next month whatever features they intend to incorporate in Ethereum’s upcoming update, Shanghai. Within the group, opinions are divided. Again, the decision will have far-reaching financial effects. Ethereum core developer Micah Zoltu told local media,

“Lots of people have lots of things they want to go in [Shanghai], but there isn’t yet consensus on what will actually make it.”

The ability for Ethereum validators to withdraw staked ETH is perhaps the most urgent feature under consideration for the Shanghai upgrade.

The recent merging has changed Ethereum to a proof-of-stake system; as of right now, no longer will energy-intensive “miners” confirm transactions on the Ethereum network, but rather users and organisations who have staked significant amounts of ETH. These organisations will be able to create and accumulate fresh ETH through staking as compensation for demonstrating the processing capacity required to validate transactions and protect the network.

However, ETH can currently only be placed into it’s staking system. It cannot be taken back. Until ETH’s developers introduce a withdrawal feature, the nearly $21 billion in ETH already staked on the network will remain there.

It seems sense that practically every core developer has withdrawal capability at the top of their list of priorities for the Shanghai upgrade.

Next in line for Ethereum

Updates to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the developer-focused mechanism at the foundation of the world’s second largest cryptocurrency that establishes the norms dictating how blocks interact on the network, are the second most probable set of improvements to be included in Shanghai. The EVM hasn’t been updated in more than two years, in part because developers would have had a terrible time integrating such enhancements into the merge.

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Source: Twitter

Proto-danksharding, which has to do with the rollups of scaling technology, is another long-rumored ETH feature that has attracted a good amount of interest.

By condensing groups of transactions into a single transaction and presenting it to the ETH blockchain as a single transaction, rollups are solutions that solve the Ethereum mainnet’s sluggish pace and high gas prices.

Proto-danksharding would be the early iteration of danksharding, a method for verifying vast amounts of data on rollups using only a small sample of the total data. Essentially, the change would greatly speed up and simplify the verification of enormous volumes of data on Ethereum layer-2 networks like Optimism and Arbitrum.

Although layer-2 customers find the idea of danksharding to be quite appealing because the upgrade would probably reduce transaction times and gas costs, it would also have a price.

The upgrade will be more difficult and, most crucially, postponed the more complicated the set of features incorporated in Shanghai.

How long it will take to implement Shanghai cannot yet be predicted. However, Van Der Wijden is certain that the improvement will take place in the upcoming year.

However, that deadline likely be postponed as more Ethereum users and developers focus on more ambitious and urgent network enhancements, such as proto-danksharding.

Will Ethereum attract SEC scrutiny? Here’s why it seems like it

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The Merge wasn’t a significant occurrence just for the Ethereum network. One of history’s most eagerly awaited events had happened, and the whole crypto sector rejoiced. The network’s switch to Proof-of-Stake [PoS] from Proof-of-Work [PoW] is viewed as revolutionary by some and harmful by others. The majority of the cryptocurrency community was excited to see how this initiative plays out for the network, despite the fact that Bitcoin maximalists and ETH miners weren’t on board with this shift.

Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin, the creators of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, were busy celebrating and thanking everyone involved in the process. While doing so, several of them praised the smooth conversion of the ETH network to PoS. Eli Ben-Sasson, the president of StarkWare, compared the Webb Telescope to the Merge on Twitter.

Along with all the compliments, there was also criticism. As was already indicated, many have noted that ETH was breaking the rules of the cryptocurrency market by allowing the Merge.

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Source: Twitter

Samson Mow poked fun at Ethereum’s seamless conversion to PoS and commented,

“ETH fanboys watching the Merge with anticipation is funny. There can be no technical failures in Ethereum because Ethereum’s existence isn’t predicated on any technology – it already failed in 2016 with the DAO fork. What exists today is a database run by a marketing company.”

SEC to get involved post-Ethereum Merge

Amidst this historic event, Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), reiterated his support for monitoring on Thursday by stating that staked cryptocurrencies may be governed by federal securities laws. This comes after Ethereum switched to a similar system.

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SEC chairman Gary Gensler

The Wall Street Journal quotes Gensler as saying that proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains, which create new coins for creators who pool their holdings, take on characteristics similar to investment contracts and may fall within his agency’s jurisdiction. The Journal reported that the man claimed he wasn’t referring to a specific coin.

However, the remarks, which came hours after Ethereum successfully completed its PoS shift through the Merge, suggest that the significant technological improvement may have more effects on the second-most popular blockchain than only reducing its energy consumption. Its native ether currency was one of only two cryptos, along with bitcoin, that was explicitly classified as commodities by federal regulators as a proof-of-work chain.

Here’s how Ethereum is rising like a phoenix post Merge

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After years of development and delay, the enormous upgrade of Ethereum known as the Merge is finally under way, transferring the digital machinery at the centre of the second-largest cryptocurrency to a system that uses a great deal less energy.

At the time of publication, the network has officially stopped depending on power-hungry cryptocurrency miners, having reached a critical point of no return.

The long-awaited upgrade is still being watched closely by Ethereum’s core developers, though. The key metrics that will show whether validators, the administrators of Ethereum’s new proof-of-stake network, are acting as expected and adding new transactions to the blockchain’s ledger are still being anxiously awaited by blockchain developers and enthusiasts gathered in Zoom conferences and joyful livestreams.

Switching from the proof-of-work method of running a blockchain to the proof-of-stake method is no easy task. Before the Merge took place, Justin Drake, a researcher at the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation, told local media,

“The metaphor that I use is this idea of switching out an engine from a running car. I like to think of it as kind of like the switch from gasoline to electric .”

If Ethereum’s dress rehearsals for the Merge are any indication, some initial problems are anticipated. But if it works, the benefits will be enormous. Already, Ethereum should use 99.9% less energy than before. One assessment compares it to Finland abruptly shutting down its electrical grid in terms of carbon output.

The network, which is home to a $60 billion ecosystem of cryptocurrency exchanges, lending organisations, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, and other apps, will be upgraded, according to developers, if the Merge is successful in its entirety.

How ready was the Ethereum community to welcome the merge?

There were many methods available to those who wished to view the ETH network’s historic switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) in real-time.

An hour and a half prior to the anticipated time of the Merge, the Ethereum Foundation had organised an Ethereum Mainnet Merge Viewing Party live feed, which promptly went live on YouTube at 4:00 am UTC.

The Merge happened after the network’s total terminal difficulty, which was 58750000000000000000000, was reached. After that, the next block would have been created using a proof-of-stake algorithm.

The Ethereum Cat Herders, writers from Bankless and The Daily Gwei, and other guests are scheduled for The Ethereum Foundation’s live webcast.

Other “notable guests” were also alluded to in the description, possibly including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and “The Daily Gwei” founder Anthony Sassano, who have both taken part in testnet live streaming in the past.

Viewers who joined two hours before The Merge could “participate in a POAP art canvas,” according to the YouTube description.

Google, Wenmerge.com, and Blockchain.com all maintained a rolling tally of the current total Total Terminal Difficulty and a projected Merge time for users who desired the most up-to-date countdown to the Merge. BTC.com also has a countdown of its own.

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Here’s how the Ethereum merge will alter the cryptoverse

Ethereum Merge: Talk of the town

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Source: Twitter

Furthermore, now with the completion of the Merge, ETH was priced at $1,632.81 with a steep rise of 2.63% over the last 24 hours.

Solana Lab’s COO believes silver lining of ETH Merge

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Both good and bad things have been said about the Solana network. This year, the asset has experienced everything from a class action lawsuit to the establishment of its first physical location. It seems to be in the spotlight once more right now for a significant reason. Raj Gokal, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Solana Labs asserts that he believes that the Ethereum merger would be successful.

Gokal said,

“It’s one step for Ethereum in a long road map toward having the type of scalability that Solana has today.”

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Raj Gokal, COO Solana labs

The company wants to “see Ethereum thrive,” according to Gokal, who is also a co-founder of the SOL blockchain, in part because it might boost confidence in the entire sector. He continued by saying that the SOL team wants to see the Merge succeed since it is positive for observers of the cryptocurrency sector to see significant updates, launches, and success.

The Merge will replace Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus process with a quicker and more energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) model. It is anticipated to take place in the next days.

Currently, Solana uses both a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol and a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus. Users can create and invest in crypto-native apps using the blockchain-based smart contract platform via the Solana blockchain. According to Gokal, that “energy efficient” approach was used right away.

According to Gokal, based on non-fungible token (NFT) volumes, consumers are more concerned about scalability, throughput, and cost, even though Ethereum’s Merge isn’t anticipated to increase any of those factors. He added,

“From our perspective, these NFT volumes just go to show users really do care about that cost and performance. Because “Ethereum is probably the largest by mindshare for NFT projects as an ecosystem, its shift away from proof-of-work towards a less-environmentally harmful protocol is a really good thing.”

T’is the year of Solana’s Saga

Solana Mobile, a division of Solana Labs, announced in June of this year that it was developing the “Saga,” a Web 3 mobile phone.

Gokal claims that the Android-based phone’s development kits had “nearly sold out” before its anticipated introduction for $1,000 per unit.

Gokal responded that he was “surprised to see that there hasn’t really been much focus on the crypto-conscious customer” when asked how the phone will compare to Apple’s iPhone 14. He went on to say,

“Given the last year of explosive growth in usage, and the fact that crypto is arguably going more mainstream, we expected Apple would be launching crypto-native features in iPhone 13 and that Google [and] Samsung would be doing the same on their own phones.”

According to Gokal, the industry is still “open and hungry for this type of product,” and that sub-segment of consumers who buy consumer electronics may be a substantial source of volume for cryptocurrencies if the “right 50,000 or 100,000” get in.

Ethereum to get ‘Forked’ 24 hours after Merge

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Ethereum has been the talk of the town ever since the transition to Proof of Stake (PoS) was announced. The entire community has been keeping track of all the events leading up to the same. While the majority of the industry seemed to be anticipating a seamless transition, a few of them were hoping for another delay. However, it appears that everything has gone according to plan, and all that is left is for the PoS to launch.

The Ethereum PoW community said that a “hard fork is inevitable” back in mid-August, and that work was already being done to make the hard fork successful. According to information provided at the time, the community had already removed the difficulty time bomb, changed the Chain ID to give replay protection, and finished setting up the testnet, advancing the plans.

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Source: Twitter

The team has now revealed the precise date of the fork’s formal introduction, which is the most recent development. The hard fork will happen one day after Ethereum’s Merge materializes, according to their most recent Twitter thread. Notably, the latter is scheduled for September 15, implying that the former would likely be launched on 16 September 2022.

The Ethereum PoW team tweeted to elaborate further on this,

“ETHW mainnet will happen within 24 hours after the Merge. The exact time will be announced 1 hour before launch with a countdown timer and everything including final code, binaries, config files, nodes info, RPC, explorer, etc. will be made public when the time’s up.”

Furthermore, the block height of the Merge block “plus” 2048 EMPTY blocks will be the starting point for the mainnet. As a result, the first block on ETHW that might include any transactions will be the Merge block + 2049.

The company also disclosed that the initial mining difficulty will not be less than ~220 T, which translates to 15 TH/s in terms of hashrate.

Ethereum miners to lose significance

Miners will become less important on the Ethereum network after the Merge. Ethereum miners made $1 billion more than Bitcoin miners did the previous year. The advantage held by Ethereum miners has persisted from this year to the present. However, by mid-September, the income figure is expected to decrease to zero. Colin Wu tweeted the precise numbers after tallying them up,

ETH miners earned 11 billion, 18 billion, and 2 billion in 2022, 2021, and 2020, compared to 10 billion, 17 billion, and 5 billion for BTC miners. Ethereum miners’ income will likely be reduced to 0 after this week.

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Source: Twitter

Google Adds Ethereum Merge Countdown as the Merge Nears

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The Ethereum merge is set to go live in a few days. The tech behemoth Google has added a new countdown timer to mark the remaining time until the up-and-coming Ethereum Merge as a show of support.

A countdown ticker with the expected time left until the merge based on the current difficulty, merge difficulty, and hash rate is displayed when you type any variation of “Ethereum Merge” or “The Merge” into the search engine.

A cartoon of two joyful pandas running toward one another with outstretched hands is displayed off to the side; it is implied that they will get closer as the merge date approaches.

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Google Adds Ethereum Merge Countdown as the Merge Nears 10

Google’s support for Ethereum for years of work

In a tweet on September 9, Google Cloud developer Sam Padilla said the timer was “a fun little surprise” and a manner to acknowledge “the work which has been going into this for years.”

Although he acknowledged that the work was completed by the Google search and labs team, he claimed to have put up the idea and subsequent discussion that resulted in the timer’s implementation.

The countdown is updated in real-time thanks to a direct connection between the timer and the blockchain, as Padilla explained in the same post.

Additionally, he made a joking statement that pandas are getting closer as the Merge date draws near, saying: “But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Google established a Web3 team under Google Cloud on May 6, signaling the company’s growing interest in the cryptocurrency sector.

But others besides Google developers are paying close attention to the Merge.  According to recent Google search data, searches for the term “Ethereum Merge” produced a score above 50 on multiple occasions over the past 30 days, peaking at 100 on September 3.

A score of 100 indicates the term is at its “peak popularity,” while a score of 50 indicates the term is “half as popular.” A score of 0 indicates that the day’s data was insufficient.

Ethereum: It’s showtime for last shadow fork

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A much-anticipated update concerns Ethereum [ETH] and its significant transition to the Proof-of-Stake [PoS] space. The entire community has been keeping track of all the events leading up to the same. A few in the sector were anticipating yet another delay, even though the majority appeared to be expecting a smooth changeover. The ETH community, on the other hand, decidedthe decision to walk the ramp with flying colors and disprove the rest that seems to think otherwise.

The developers of Ethereum (ETH) have announced that the prerequisite shadow forks necessary for the eagerly awaited blockchain upgrade known as The Merge have been completed successfully. Shadow forks assist programmers in stress testing synchronisation hypotheses to guarantee network security during ongoing upgrades. On 11 April 2022, Ethereum engineers implemented the first shadow fork in response to The Merge.

Nearly six months after the last shadow fork, Mainnet-Shadowfork-13, the Ethereum research and engineering firm Nethermind declared that the transition was successful, indicating that the network was prepared to switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus method.

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Source: Twitter

Among other features, the testnet gave Ethereum developers the chance to practice running nodes, deploying contracts, and testing the infrastructure. Shadow forks, therefore, enable developers to assess the effects of network upgrades in advance. The community must update their Ethereum clients and execute the combination of an execution layer and consensus layer as part of the upgrade.

Alexander Höptner, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, emphasised the importance of paying close attention during the Ethereum update to prevent service outages. Höptner remarked in a statement to the local media,

“You have to be just, let’s say, awake and see what happens. There’s a chance for high volatility. And so you have to make sure that your services are up and running. […] We don’t expect any major disruptions outside of volatility.”

The CEO went on to say that community support would be crucial to The Merge’s success.

Ethereum creator is grateful to Dogecoin killer community

The creator of the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, Vitalik Buterin, has once more acknowledged the Shiba Inu Community for its contributions to the development of the cryptocurrency in a series of tweets. He most recently provided a second update on Balvi in a series of tweets.

With the development of the coin, Buterin and the Shiba Inu community have cultivated a cordial relationship. Ryoshi, the developer of SHIB, gave Buterin 50% of the Shiba Inu supply at the time, or roughly 500 trillion tokens. Even the claim that Vitalik Buterin is one of the Shiba Inu breed’s original founders has been made by others.

At the tiem of writing, Ethereum was priced at $1,720.40 with a daily rise of 0.25% over the last 24 hours.

Ethereum Merge: Countdown Begins As The Final Upgrade Bellatrix Is Activated

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Ethereum’s Bellatrix update which *prepares* the chain for the merge has gone live. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin took to Twitter to reveal the expected release date to be from September 13-15. Tim Beiko, ETH’s core developer earlier put the network’s complete transition on Sept 15.

“The actual transition happens upon hitting a specific Total Difficulty value of 58750000000000000000000 on the proof-of-work chain”, the tweet read.

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Ethereum Merge: Countdown Begins As The Final Upgrade Bellatrix Is Activated 14

The hard fork that will transform Ethereum (ETH) from a proof-of-work (PoW) base to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism is known as Ethereum 2.0.

Before the final merge comes the Bellatrix update for ETH which went live today at around 5:00 IST or 11:34 UTC. Here the update will trigger the Epoch value [the time taken to complete a specific amount of blocks] to rise by 144,896 on the proof-of-stake chain.

According to the Ethereum Foundation, the time taken to mine 30,000 blocks is one epoch.

The Bellatrix hard fork is crucial for a smooth merge as it consolidates the PoS chain with the current execution layer and is the last step before the Paris Upgrade, which will occur after “the Merge” [current proof-of-work].

The Paris Upgrade will bring Ethereum Blockchain mining to an end and signal the switch from a PoW to a proof-of-stake validation mechanism.

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Ethereum Merge: Countdown Begins As The Final Upgrade Bellatrix Is Activated 15

The goal here is to increase the eth network’s speed from the current 20 transactions per second to 1,000–1,500 tps. Also, to boost scalability and effectiveness to execute more transactions concurrently.

Eth proponents believe this figure has the potential to reach 100,000 transactions per second if an external solution [roll-up] is used.

Additionally, the change would significantly cut down on energy usage.

The Bellatrix upgrade along with the Beacon Chain is joined with the Ethereum mainnet, and the consensus algorithm is completely changed from PoW to PoS.

What’s Next After Ethereum’s Merge?

The next stage is to introduce the layer 2 scaling solution zk-rollups which uses an Ethereum sidechain to consolidate and execute several transactions at once. This is to lift the burden away from the mainnet by processing data elsewhere.

The two most crucial processes here are merge and surge.

The final comes sharding that splits up a blockchain into smaller groups for specific purposes. Each blockchain can have its own shard, which can also be replicated on multiple nodes. As per the ETH foundation, the 2.0 model would come with 64 separate shards

Buterin says once the merge, surge, and sharding are over, Ethereum will be close to 80% complete.