Ethereum, “The Merge”: What Investors Are Saying

Ethereum, “The Merge”: What Investors Are Saying

Ethereum is entering its next phase. Some investors call it the Amazon cloud service of blockchain ... [+] and crypto. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images) At long last, this is the summer of Ethereum. So with the current downtrend in crypto, this might be a good time to buy some ETH, if you believe cryptocurrency and blockchains will be a thing (and who doesn't?). The great upgrade, called "the merge", is happening. Ethereum will be bigger, better, faster, stronger. The merge is the second step in the Ethereum roadmap. The merge switches Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, using ETH itself to secure transactions as opposed to using ASIC mining machines. This will reduce the energy consumption of Ethereum by a supposed 90% and make the system more secure. Worth noting, it is only a consensus layer change, not an execution layer change, notes Chris McCann, Partner at Race Capital. "What this means is transaction time will not change, gas fees will not change, and there will likely be no cost reduction or bandwidth improvements either," McCann says. "I am hurt by Ethereum gas fees, but another point of view – crypto offers you possibilities to work with those fees," says