If you’ve been following the crypto market for some time, you might have heard that the world’s second largest cryptocurrency has moved from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol called Merge this month.
To bypass this, ETH miners got ready for a hard fork of Ethereum, which is called ‘ETHPoW’. This allowed miners to branch off from the Ethereum chain after the Merge and try to continue the proof-of-work chain through a hard fork, or sort of blockchain split.
If miners won’t move to ETHPoW, they will become redundant and lose all cash they have earned from mining ETH.
Miners’ actions are not surprising, since they will no longer have a means of support after the merger and Ethereum switches to proof of stake.
The ETHPoW team is aware that their objective is ‘not easy’, but they are nevertheless quite optimistic about their chances of accomplishment.
They stated in a letter that they had already overcome significant obstacles, such as the so-called difficulty bomb.
Justin Sun, the inventor of Tron and one of the most well-known investors is backing a hard fork of Ethereum after the blockchain transitions to a proof-of-stake (PoS) method.
As per an estimate, miners produced over $620 million worth of ether in just July, making The Merge comparable to a death knell for a sizable sum of money.
This has prompted a number of well-known Chinese miners to propose a hard fork, in which the miners would maintain a newly segregated PoW version of the chain even while Ethereum went through The Merge and was validated by stakers. Theoretically, this would not disrupt their business operations.
The sole restriction is that the code must first be accepted by Ethereum’s core development team, which oversees the repository on the website hosting software development projects known as GitHub.
The 2015 launched cryptocurrency, which has been trading at $1,735, will remain the native coin of the Ethereum chain with the PoS consensus method. A new coin called ETHPoW would be used by the PoW chain, which stands for a group of miners opposed to the upcoming Merge or transition to PoS.
Crypto researchers predict that holders of ETH will receive ETHPoW for free if the chain divides.
ETH upgrades roadmap
The Beacon Chain, which is already in place, The Merge, The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge are all part of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrades.
Sharding is undoubtedly in the works and is expected to happen somewhere in 2023 after The Merge, even though there has been no formal statement regarding the other Ethereum upgrades.
The new Ethereum blockchain is anticipated to improve scalability, security, and sustainability after all the changes have been implemented, while remaining decentralized.
Beacon Chain
The Beacon Chain, formerly known as Phase 0, is the first improvement in a line of significant Ethereum improvements. On December 1, 2020, it became live and brought Proof of Stake to the Ethereum ecosystem. Users have two options for interacting with the Beacon Chain: stake ETH or use a consensus client to protect the network. Currently, it operates side-by-side with the Ethereum mainnet.
Merge
The Merge was the next big thing by Ethereum that can solve scalability problems. In September 2022, it is anticipated that the Ethereum mainnet will successfully converge with the Proof of Stake network managed by the Beacon Chain. After The Merge, the ecosystem’s network security will solely be provided via a PoS mechanism. *Currently in play.
Consensus mechanism
Ethereum’s Proof of Work consensus method is now replaced by a PoS consensus mechanism after the Merge that took place on Sep 15. Blocks will be minted (or forged) by validator nodes rather than mined. Periodically, one node is chosen at random to validate a candidate block.
These validators are encouraged to do so with staking payouts and transaction fee suggestions. PoS is more sustainable than PoW since it uses substantially less resources because nodes compete with one another to add new blocks.
Owners of ETH were reassured by representatives of the Ethereum development team that their current method of interacting with the blockchain will remain unchanged. No cryptocurrency exchanges or Ethereum wallets will be impacted by the London Hard Fork (web and hardware).
Everyone now involved in the Ethereum ecosystem is interested in lower gas fees and faster transaction times, which should greatly enhance adoption in the future.
