You may not have heard of The Merge, but it could change our world
Ethereum is now the world’s number two cryptocurrency. And the conversion of its consensus algorithm from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake is due to take place in mid-September in an event called The Merge, which if all goes according to plan, will be a game changer.
Why is Ethereum transitioning from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake? Fundamentally, because it can. We’re talking about a fully functioning, open-source ecosystem with a capacity for evolution that other cryptocurrencies clearly lack, a change that would allow it to scale up its performance from about 15 transactions per second to 100,000 at a time when its blockchain is being used for more and more things, and that would reduce its energy consumption by about 99.95%. In addition, we would see other changes, some of which greatly affect its operation: its founder, Vitalik Buterin, would take a less active role thanks to the decentralization of the system, and the miners, who until now were in charge of validating transactions through proof of work, would also take on a far less relevant role.
Why has this conversion taken so long to come about, and why has it required so many precautions? Basically, because it is a matter of changing a fundamental mechanism while it is still in operation, without causing an interruption in the system, in order…
