The highly anticipated Ethereum merge is expected to occur in the early hours of Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. Here’s a look at exactly when that could happen and what it means.
The Ethereum Merge: The cryptocurrency Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) will transition from a proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake. The transition will see Ethereum lower its environmental impact.
The proof-of-stake model will see the use of validators who stake the tokens to verify transactions. The staked tokens earn interest payments as a reward for members who stake.
The Ethereum merge will impact those individuals and companies who previously mined the cryptocurrency. Miners will now look to fork Ethereum to continue a proof-of-work blockchain after the merge. Uniswap, Circle and Tether are among the companies that have said they will support the proof-of-work chain after the merge.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin planned for a proof-of-stake model for years and the merge will complete his vision. Originally called ETH 2.0, the Ethereum merge is part of the Ethereum Vision, which will see several upgrades made to Ethereum by 2024.
Why It’s Important: The transition could see more companies and individuals work with Ethereum, as the cryptocurrency has been ruled out by some due to its environmental impact.
Some companies choose to work with other cryptocurrencies as a result.
The Ethereum Organization estimates that energy consumption for Ethereum in the proof-of-stake model will be reduced by 99.95%.
A greater number of use cases for Ethereum could have an impact on the price of the cryptocurrency, as it could potentially be used by more companies and individuals. The ability to stake Ethereum and get rewarded could also make the cryptocurrency a popular holding for crypto investors.
More use cases for Ethereum and the lower energy output could have a negative impact on several blockchains that have risen in popularity due to having faster transaction times and lower energy consumption to rival Ethereum.
The Ethereum merge could therefore have a huge impact on not just the price of Ethereum, but several of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Related Link: How To Buy Ethereum
The Merge Timeline: Several sites are tracking the countdown of when the Ethereum merge will be completed. The upgrade has started and is now expected to be completed in the early hours (eastern time zone) Thursday.
Google, the search engine giant owned by Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), is providing a live tracker of the merge. At the time of writing, Google lists the countdown at 15 hours and 49 minutes, which would put the official completion between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. ET Thursday.
A countdown from Block Native shows the countdown at 14 hours and 33 minutes, which would put the Ethereum merge closer to 1 a.m. ET.
The countdown could become more accurate as the transactions get closer to the final block.
Follow along with Benzinga for all the latest on the Ethereum merge, which is one of the biggest cryptocurrency events of 2022 and the last decade.
ETH Price Action: Ethereum trades at $1,603.86 at the time of writing. The cryptocurrency has gained 4% in the last seven days, but remains down over 50% year-to-date in 2022. Ethereum has a 52-week trading range of $896.11 to $4,891.70.
