The Ethereum Merge is set to occur on Sept. 15 at around 6am UTC, with the energy-efficiency-focused transition expected to have a major impact on crypto investment and adoption, experts say.
StarkWare President and Co-Founder Eli Ben-Sasson spoke to Cointelegraph during the lead-up for the Merge. He stated that the Ethereum Merge would be “the first step in a process which will lead to an exceedingly wide adoption of Ethereum”
“The Merge’s immediate impact on energy consumption is of vital importance.”
The Merge will see Ethereum’s energy consumption drop by 99.95% in comparison to its current Proof-of-Work (PoW), consensus mechanism. This is a large amount of energy that must be used to compete to solve arbitrary mathematical problems.
Ben-Sasson added, “I think about the Merge as the development of first solar fields.”
We saw that electricity production can be reduced in terms of its environmental impact. “Problem solved” was not what we meant, but that if electricity is being generated with less pollution, it’s time for us to increase our efforts to use power sparingly.
We are so excited to never hear about “ommer block” again.
Okay, I get that “ommer” was intended to be a gender-neutral substitute for “uncle”, but it *sounds* insulting to people who meditate.
And electricity saving! This is cool, too.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin)
September 14, 2022
Ben-Sasson believes that the end result will be when the general public uses blockchain-based applications in many areas of their lives, “just as naturally as people today use smartphone apps.”
Asher Tan, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinjar, says that the Merge will change the narrative about crypto. He points out that it is rare for any sector in tech to “execute such an extreme reduction in their energy intensity.”
Tan stated that “we believe people underestimate the importance of the post-Merge 99.95% decrease in energy use.”
“It makes Ethereum network much more publically palatable and opens up the door for investors, companies that have remained crypto-agnostic because of its carbon footprint.”
Although Ethereum’s transition is expected to be smooth, it remains unclear if the Merge has been included in Ether’s ( ETH) price.
Charmyn Ho is the head of crypto insights at crypto-exchange Bybit. She says that their analysts concluded that there was “no consensus” between institutional investors and market makers about short-term trading around Merge. Instead, they believe hodlers will be more likely to accumulate ETH.
Related to It took only 10 hours for the Ethereum Merge to be completed. Here are the basics
The Merge is not a question of whether or not the Ethereum bubble will collapse.
Yesterday, Joseph Lubin, Ethereum’s co-founder, told Bloomberg that he believes that the transition will result in very few disruptions to users and developers. It will be “as seamless as if your iPhone has just upgraded its operating system overnight.”
StarkWare’s Ben-Sasson sees the transition as smooth, pointing out that the Ethereum Foundation prepared so carefully for this moment and instills lots of confidence.”
“It will be a sign of success when we produce the first block by proof of stake. This is not the end of the journey.
Lubin believes that this is the third-most important event in crypto space. It follows only Ethereum ( BTC ) and Bitcoin ( BTC ).
