What the Upcoming Ethereum Merger Could Mean for the Crypto Market

Ethereum and Bitcoin were among the earliest cryptocurrencies, taking the position of the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Hence, their technology has become outdated compared to those created to improve features. In 2015, Vitalik Buterin and Joe Lubin created Ethereum, a decentralized platform that would allow anyone to create and distribute apps. In its whitepaper, Ethereum predicted decentralized finance and Web3 would be the most significant blockchain application. Developers of the Ethereum network have been working on a series of significant changes that will bring about many changes to the platform. The goal of the Merge is to maintain a stable and secure network while also improving scalability. The Shift to Proof of Stake Ethereum uses proof of work to validate transactions recorded on the blockchain. Computers race to solve puzzles and receive rewards in ETH as a result. However, this method has been criticized for the longest time for being energy-intensive, hence environmental degradation. Ethereum is looking to shift to proof of stake, whereby the consensus mechanism is 99% more energy efficient. Here, proof of stake validates transactions through the addresses that stake ETH. The higher the stake, the more the rewards. As you have heard, Merge hit the news last year, and it aims to make the Ethereum Network cheap and fast. The two are significant concerns that the network has been facing over th...