Mark Tencaten | The crypto world is eagerly waiting for 'the Merge

1. Mark Tencaten | Mark Tencaten | the eagerly waiting for 'the Merge eagerly waiting for 'the Merge The bitcoin industry has experienced a terrible year. A catastrophic crash destroyed around $1 trillion in market value and wiped out thousands of people's savings. A number of businesses declared bankruptcy. the crypto world is crypto world is Mark Tencaten explains that the cryptocurrency market is currently obsessed with a long-awaited software update to Ethereum, the most widely used cryptocurrency platform that serves as the technological foundation for millions of crypto ventures. After years of delays, some insiders wondered whether the upgrade—known as the Merge—would ever take place. Mark Tencaten says that if everything goes as planned, if Merge is successful. The change would move Ethereum to a more energy-efficient architecture, resolving the common complaint that the negative effects of cryptocurrencies on the climate exceed any potential benefits. Additionally, it would establish the groundwork for future improvements that will lower the high transaction fees associated with using Ether, the platform's native currency and the second-most valuable digital currency behind bitcoin. Mark Tencaten also explains the serious risks. The procedure is nearly ridiculously complicated, even by crypto standards. Insiders have been discussing important software upgrades like the Bellatrix upgrade on the Beacon Chain and the Goerli Testnet Merge in frenetic, jargon-

2. filled talks for months. The thousands of cryptocurrency applications that use Ethereum and manage more than $50 billion in user assets would be in danger from a failed Merge. Ethereum works on a blockchain, a publicly accessible ledger where transactions involving virtual currency are documented. Ether is used for all chain transactions. The platform was founded in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a young programmer who is today recognized as one of the pioneers in his field. Buterin aimed to develop a more adaptable cryptosystem than bitcoin and could rapidly carry out complicated types of exchange and financial contracts. Due to its nature, Ethereum can support a variety of financial engineering. In order to carry out more complicated operations than just money transfers, programmers can create applications using the software. The platform is now used by thousands of companies and initiatives in the emerging field of decentralized finance to provide borrowing, lending, and other complex investment choices. Ethereum is the foundation for many non-fungible tokens (NFTs), also known as unique digital collectibles. The Merge is fundamentally a modification to the Ethereum verification system. A bank acts as the middleman in a traditional transaction by confirming that one party has enough money to pay the other party. Crypto does not use a middleman. Transactions in this alternative financial system are checked by a

3. distributed network of computers. By running software that solves challenging mathematical puzzles, an energy-intensive method for verifying transactions, anyone can connect a machine to the network. In essence, the computers are competing against one another: after the challenge is completed, the winners are awarded new coins in the virtual currency they are validating. Crypto mining, or "proof of work," is the technical term for this verification procedure. According to some calculations, the annual energy used in mining is similar to the annual emissions of entire nations. The Merge will move Ethereum to a different, less energy-intensive system called "proof of stake." Computers don't waste resources trying to validate transactions in a proof-of-stake system. Instead, cryptocurrency investors place a predetermined quantity of digital tokens in a shared pool, which qualifies them for a lottery. A participant is chosen randomly from the lottery each time an exchange takes place in order to validate the transaction and get the benefits. The change is anticipated to reduce Ethereum's energy demand by more than 99%, and cryptocurrency boosters would increase public interest in the technology. Another of Ethereum's significant issues, the high network usage costs, might be resolved by switching to proof of stake because Ethereum can only manage so much activity at once; its price to use increases as demand for the network

4. increases. A transaction cost known as the "gas fee," which can occasionally reach $200, is required of anyone transferring Ether. As per Mark Tencaten, The Merge won't immediately solve that issue; its creators claim it will build the framework for future enhancements intended to reduce costs. The switch to proof of stake was once planned to occur as soon as 2016. According to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, the Merge was anticipated to begin in June this year. The Merge was then postponed until August. It will now take place next month.