Written by

Sofia Blikstad

Analyst

Archived Articles

13 Sep 2022

The calm before The Merge

Source: Ethereum Foundation

Last week, Bellatrix was activated—the last major update before the merge—and enables Ethereum consensus layer clients to execute transactions on the Beacon chain.

A brief on what the merge will mean in practice:

Last week, Bellatrix was activated—the last major update before the merge—and enables Ethereum consensus layer clients to execute transactions on the Beacon chain.

A brief on what the merge will mean in practice: It will: 1) Immediately reduce Ethereum’s energy demand by 99.95%, 2) Allow for future upgrades that will make it faster and more scalable, and 3) Reduce ETH issuance by ~90%*.

It will not: 1) Create another blockchain called “Ethereum 2.0”, 2) Create a new Ethereum token called “ETH2”, or 3) Lower the cost of ETH transactions.

Related reading - market angle ahead of merge:

ETH hedging in perps

ETHPOW hard fork struggling while ETC stays strong