Tag: merge

Ethereum Set to Undergo Shanghai Update in March, Here’s What It Means

Ethereum, the world’s most commercialised blockchain, is set to see the completion of another historic update, called the Shanghai update. As of now, people who staked Ether tokens to validate the blockchain had no way to withdraw their tokens. It is estimated that $22.38 billion (roughly Rs. 1,82,520 crore) worth of Ether tokens are currently staked on the blockchain. Around March, when the upgrade is slated to be complete, it will change the situation.

The amount of staked ETH spiked when Ethereum was preparing to switch from its power-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) module to a green alternative. That eco-friendly module is called the ‘Proof-of-Stake’ (PoS).

In PoS, blockchain validators stake their personal Ether tokens to create new blocks and verify transactions. In return, stakers get interest on their tokens.

Called the Merge, Ethereum’s upgrade to PoS successfully completed in September last year.

Some people will be able to withdraw ETH that have been staked since 2020, in a first opportunity to do so.

As per Blockonomi, over 15 million Ether tokens are currently staked at the network.

After March, PoS Ethereum validators would get a choice to either keep their tokens staked or withdraw them.

When staked ETH tokens are open to be withdrawn, it could encourage more people to become part of the network.

When the update completes, it could shake Ether’s value point, which at the time of writing stands at $1,398 (roughly Rs. 1.10 lakh).

Ethereum developers are reportedly looking to launch a public testnet for the Shanghai update in February.

The blockchain upgrade will also bring fixes and small improvements to its infrastructure.

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Dogecoin Rises as Second Largest PoW Cryptocurrency Following Ethereum Merge Arrival

Dogecoin, the meme-based cryptocurrency that was formed as a joke in 2013, today stands as the second-largest proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. The development comes a day after the Ethereum blockchain completed its transition to the energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) mining model from its previous power-intensive PoW mechanism. Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, the Ether has also, hence given up its place among the PoW coins. Dogecoin, meanwhile, is presently trading at $0.059 (roughly Rs. 5) and its market cap stands at $7.83 billion (roughly Rs. 62 crore).

Dogecoin was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.

Back in 2021, Markus had admitted in an interview that he made Dogecoin in ‘just two hours’, and didn’t even ‘think of the environmental impact’.

The meme cryptocurrency is an open-source token, based on a fork of the Litecoin code. The symbol for the DOGE is based on a meme-famous dog from the Shiba Inu breed.

As per CoinMarketCap, DOGE has a circulating supply of 132,670,764,300 DOGE coins and the maximum supply is not available.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man is an avid DOGE supporter. Musk recently found himself in legal trouble after some Doge investors filed a complaint that Musk’s endorsement of the cryptocurrency has been beyond its usability that has caused the investors financial dips.

A lawsuit worth $258 billion (roughly Rs. 20,57,911 crore) has been levied on Musk by the plaintiffs in the case.

Meanwhile, PoW cryptocurrencies Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), and Monero (XMR) follow BTC and DOGE on the third, fourth, and fifth ranks.

Insiders from the crypto community have often said that if more PoW cryptocurrencies switch to PoS modes, it could trigger a wide-scale adoption of the technology around the world.

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‘Happy Merge All’: Vitalik Buterin Officially Confirms Arrival of Ethereum’s Upgrade

The ‘Merge’ — the much-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain — finally completed on September 15, marking a historic milestone in the blockchain and crypto industries. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum announced the launch of the Merge on Twitter, calling this a “big moment” for the Ethereum ecosystem. Essentially, now the Ethereum blockchain has transitioned to an energy-efficient ‘proof-of-stake (POS)’ mining model from its previous, power intensive ‘proof-of-work (POW)’ mining model. This upgrade has slashed Ethereum blockchain’s power consumption by 99.95 percent.

Developers who worked on this Merge upgrade believe that this revamp will make the Ethereum network, which is most commercialised and handles billions of dollars in transactions and holdings, more scalable and secure.

“And we finalised!” wrote Buterin in his Twitter post.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was among several others from the blockchain community to welcome Ethereum’s Merge upgrade.

The process of re-coding Ethereum into the POS model has been a long one, filled with several technical roadblocks which led to several delays to the Merge launch.

Projects and blockchain firms reliant on Ethereum now have to choose if their operations would solely run on the Merge upgrade or manage this efficient version with the previous energy-intensive one.

OpenSea, Tether and Circle Pay — the issuer of USD Coin — have already pledged to only rely on the Merge version of Ethereum going forward.

Recently, a DappRadar report has alerted the crypto community to get their Ethereum-related affairs in order because the stablecoins and transactions backed on the Ethereum blockchain could encounter some snags.

Meanwhile, the bug bounty payouts for Ethereum can now go as high as $1 million (roughly Rs. 8 crore), developers of the blockchain said in a recent update, encouraging software developers to keep an eye out on potential risks around the newly launched upgrade.



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Crypto Chart Drenched in Red Ahead of Ethereum’s ‘Merge’ Upgrade

The overall crypto market slipped down ahead of the arrival of Ethereum’s energy-efficient upgrade called the Merge which is expected to arrive today. Bitcoin on Thursday, September 15, opened with a loss of 1.65 percent as per Gadgets 360’s crypto price tracker. The current trading value of BTC stands at $20,030 (roughly Rs. 16 lakh). On global exchanges, such as Binance and CoinMarketCap as well, BTC slipped by around 1.65 percent to trade at a similar $20,000 (roughly Rs. 16 lakh) price point. It is being touted that with the eco-friendly Merge revamp, the Ethereum blockchain could soon pose a threat to Bitcoin’s monarchy over the crypto sector.

Ether saw smaller losses than Bitcoin and slipped price-wise by 0.15 percent. As per the price tracker by Gadgets 360, ETH is currently trading at $1,597 (roughly Rs. 1.26 lakh).

From stablecoins to memecoins, all kinds of altcoins tumbled down the price charts today. Most recorded only miniscule losses.

These altcoins include Tether, USD Coin, Binance Coin, Binance USD, Ripple, Cardano, and Solana among others.

Impressively, only a few altcoins seemed unaffected by the Merge chaos, and ended up reeling in small gains.

Monero, LEO, Zcash, Underdog, Gas, and WETH emerged as profit-makers on a rough market day.

Along with the Merge arrival, there are other factors also that are contributing to the market movement.

“A more aggressive path of interest rate hikes is likely underway to combat the narrative of increasingly entrenched inflation with broad expectations that a 75-100 basis point interest hike is the most likely result on 21 September 21 from the next FOMC meeting as inflation continues to broaden out rather than cool as expected; notably from the acceleration in services and living costs-based inflation,” the research team at CoinDCX told Gadgets 360.

The overall crypto market has dropped down by 0.82 percent, data by CoinMarketCap showed.

The market valuation of the crypto sector stands at $985.93 billion (roughly Rs. 78,33,849 crore).

“This hawkish sentiment led to both TradFi markets and crypto plummeting with the Nasdaq falling by more than 5 percent on the day while Bitcoin attempts to hold $20,000 (roughly Rs. 16 lakh) as psychological support after falling over 10 percent since the announcement. The overall crypto market cap fell by over 7 percent as it looks poised to retest the trillion-dollar region,” the CoinDCX research team added.

Meanwhile, social media is abuzz with the historic Merge launch.

 

The Etheruem blockchain will transition from its energy-consuming proof-of-work mining model to the proof-of-stake model that will slash Ethereum’s power requirements by 99.95 percent.  

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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FTX to Freeze Deposits, Withdrawals on Solana, Arbitrum Blockchains Amid Merge Transition

FTX crypto exchange will be briefly pausing all deposits and withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens as the Etheruem blockchain gears up to transition into its eco-friendly upgrade, named the Merge. The final Bellatrix update for this transition to complete is scheduled to start on Tuesday, September 6. The Merge is expected to arrive around September 15, if all goes well. In a bid to ensure that no transactions are lost or hit during this transition, FTX will be halting all deposits and withdrawals for at least 30 minutes on Solana, Arbitrum, as well as other blockchains.

“FTX will suspend ETH and ERC-20 token deposits and withdrawals at approximately half an hour before the Bellatrix consensus layer upgrade. It is your responsibility to understand the implications of the Merge. FTX is not liable for any losses incurred,” the company said in its blog post.

The Bahamas-based crypto exchange, which claimed to have over one million users as of February this year, has also posted an update on Twitter.

This decision from FTX comes just days after a DappRadar report had warned that stablecoins and transactions backed on the Ethereum blockchain could encounter some snags as the blockchain shifts from its energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining model to the energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining model.

While the PoW mining model is infamous for consuming bulks of energy, PoS-supporting blockchains are termed as energy efficient.

Once the Ethereum blockchain transitions to its Merge version, its power consumption will be cut by 99.95 percent.

In the backdrop of the Merge release inching closer, OpenSea NFT marketplace recently said that it will solely support the upgraded version of the blockchain.

Earlier this month, stablecoin major Tether and Circle Pay, the issuer of USD Coin, also extended support for the Merge.

While Circle Pay has said that once the Merge has released, it will only use that version of Ethereum for the operations of USD Coin, Tether has decided to start making arrangements to support the Merge in line with its release schedule.

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OpenSea NFT Marketplace to Solely Support Ethereum’s Upgraded ‘Merge’ Version

OpenSea NFT marketplace has announced its allegiance to Ethereum’s upcoming energy-efficient upgrade called the Merge. The platform has stated that no Ethereum forks will be supported on OpenSea in order to ensure all transactions are as smooth as possible. ‘Forks’ is a technical term which is used when a blockchain network splits. OpenSea, which launched in 2017, initially started supporting NFTs that were built on the Ethereum blockchain. Presently, the platform has swelled to incubate over 80 million NFTs. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital collectibles and artworks that are backed on blockchain networks.

Ethereum’s Merge upgrade is slated for release in mid-September, its developers have hinted.

A recent DappRadar report had warned that stablecoins and transactions backed on the Ethereum blockchain could encounter some snags as the blockchain shifts from its energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining model to the energy-efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining model.

OpenSea posted a public alert on Twitter about its decision to support only Ethereum’s Merge version upon its release.

Earlier this month, stablecoin major Tether and Circle Pay, the issuer of USD Coin, also extended support for the Merge.

While Circle Pay has said that once the Merge has released, it will only use that version of Ethereum for the operations of USD Coin, Tether has decided to start making arrangements to support the Merge in line with its release schedule.

The Merge upgrade is expected to slash Ethereum’s power consumption by 99.95 percent, its developers had claimed in a blog post last year.

Meanwhile, the bug bounty payouts for Ethereum can now go as high as $1 million (roughly Rs. 8 crore), developers of the blockchain have said in a recent update.



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Ethereum’s ‘Merge’ Upgrade Gears Up for Final Testnet Check Starting August 4, Details Here

After passing through rigorous devnets, shadow forks, and other kinds of tech tests, Ethereum’s eco-friendly upgrade is finally close to its roll-out. Called the ‘Merge’, this network will transition on the final testnet, Goerli. The testing, which begins on August 4, will go through more tech checks between August 6 and August 12. The information was shared by Merge developer, Tim Beiko, on Thursday, July 28. Once complete, the Merge upgrade will slash Ethereum blockchain’s power requirements by 99.95 percent.

“The following client releases support the Merge across the Goerli and Prater testnets. Node operators must run both an execution and consensus layer client to remain on the network during and after the Merge,” Ethereum developers said in a blog post.

Ethereum developers are recoding its mining protocol to the energy efficient ‘Proof-of-Stake’ (PoS) model from its current ‘Proof-of-Work’ (PoW) system.

Once switched to PoS mining operations, randomly selected miners will be able to validate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, eliminating the requirement of dedicated machines and people to add new blocks and hence reducing Ethereum’s energy demands.

The developers are running extensive tests on the Ethereum revamp because decentralised finance (DeFi) apps reportedly worth over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,61,110 crore) are supported on the blockchain, and cannot be risked.

As for now, the release of the Merge is tentatively slated for September 19.

Earlier this month, the Merge successfully completed a trial on the public test network called Sepolia. This marked its second-to-last trial test.

In the backdrop of Merge inching closer to its release, ETH prices have soared on the crypto charts.

As per Gadgets 360’s crypto price tracker, ETH is currently trading at $1,687 (roughly Rs. 1.35 lakh).

ETH prices are up 47 percent over the past fortnight, but still 66 percent down from its last all-time high of $4,700 (roughly Rs. 3.47 lakh) that was achieved for the first-time last November.



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Ethereum Update Set to Undergo Ropsten Testnet, Completion to Mark Readiness of ‘Merge’

The eco-friendly upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain is gearing up to undergo the Ropsten Beacon Chain testnet, one of the longest-existing proof-of-work (PoW) testnet. Basically, the Ropsten testnet is the most popular replica of the Ethereum network. It is capable of imitating the aspects of the ETH mainnet, making it a test model of what Ethereum’s upgraded PoS network may work like. The new Ethereum network is named the ‘The Merge’. This recode will cut Ethereum’s carbon emissions by a substantial amount.

“Client teams are now ready to run Ropsten – the oldest proof-of-work testnet – through The Merge. In preparation, a Ropsten Beacon Chain has been launched to provide consensus to the network. The Ropsten network, which is intended to be deprecated after The Merge, will run through the upgrade earlier in the development process than previous network upgrades,” said an official blog from Ethereum developers.

Tim Beiko, one of the developers of The Merge, shared the milestone announcement on Twitter. He revealed that The Merge is expected to go under this beacon chain testnet around June 8.

The release of The Merge is expected to be ready by August this month.

Before that happens, two more testnets will be run through Ethereum 2.0 in a bid to ensure appropriate transaction execution.

Meanwhile, back in April, The Merge developers successfully stress-tested the network using a so-called mainnet shadow fork.

At the time, another Ethereum developer Marius Van Der Wijden had called this a “huge success”.

The developers are running extensive tests on the Ethereum revamp because decentralised finance (DeFi) apps reportedly worth over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,61,110 crore) are supported on the blockchain, and cannot be put in jeopardy.

The PoS mining operations use randomly selected miners to validate transactions. This cuts its energy consumption requirement, reducing its carbon emission.

The developers are running extensive tests on the Ethereum revamp because decentralised finance (DeFi) apps reportedly worth over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,61,110 crore) are supported on the blockchain, and cannot be put in jeopardy.



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Ethereum’s Eco-Friendly Revamp ‘Merge’ May Go Live in August, Unless a ‘Difficulty Bomb’ Explodes

Ethereum, the popular and largely commercialised blockchain, is currently undergoing a software revamp after which, its functioning would be more energy efficient and eco-friendly. Preston Van Loon, a developer working on Ether 2.0, has said that if everything goes according to their current plans, the ‘Merge’ would be ready for launch by August this year. The developers are recoding Ethereum’s mining protocol to ‘Proof-of-Stake’ (PoS) from its current ‘Proof-of-Work’ (PoW) model. The Merge upgrade is reportedly expected to reduce Ethereum’s power consumption by 99 percent.

Speaking at a public event, Van Loon said that Merge is almost ready. It is just a few more trials away from entering the industry.

There is however, the fears of a ‘difficulty bomb’ explosion that could further delay the launch of the Merge, that was initially slated to go live in June.

The “difficulty bomb” refers to the program coded into the Ethereum blockchain that intentionally slows down the network, a report by CoinTelegraph explained.

This feature has been designed to encourage Ethereum’s transition to PoS by increasing difficulty levels for miners so that they lose time for mining on the previous PoW chain after using Merge.

If triggered, this difficulty bomb would need to introduce another update to delay its trigger. This will extend the time for Merge’s launch further.

“As far as we know, if everything goes to plan, August — it just makes sense. If we don’t have to move [the difficulty bomb], let’s do it as soon as we can,” Van Loon added.

Back in April, Merge developers successfully stress-tested the network using a so-called mainnet shadow fork.

At the time, another Ethereum developer Marius Van Der Wijden had called this a “huge success”.

Despite the positive test results, the launch of Merge has faced repeated delays.

The developers are running extensive tests on the Ethereum revamp because decentralised finance (DeFi) apps reportedly worth over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,61,110 crore) are supported on the blockchain, and cannot be put in jeopardy.

While the PoS mining operations use randomly selected miners to validate transactions, PoW mining needs a competitive validation method to confirm transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain. Hence, the operations of PoW mining is costlier to maintain.

Like Ethereum, Bitcoin also functions on PoW mining model.

Recently, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried dismissed Bitcoin as a viable payment network option, blaming its energy-consuming PoW mining model.

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