Since the founding of Ethereum in 2015, an animating question that plagued the community was answered at exactly 06:42:59 UTC on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022.
Ethereum, the technological layer where a new class of applications and self-organizing organizations are being built, eliminated its reliance on an energy-intensive consensus mechanism called proof-of-work (PoW) to a more sustainable and secure consensus mechanism called proof-of-stake (PoS).
In what has been described as one of the most significant milestones in blockchain history, the Merge has set the template for how Ethereum will continue to be the most powerful, most used, most credibly neutral, and most energy-efficient blockchain network globally.
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The Merge is one of those historical moments where decades from now, people are going to remember what they were doing, where and with whom, whether they were part of the 41,000+ people who tuned in as blocks finalized or all the physical gatherings worldwide aimed to celebrate the occasion, which also saw Ethereum go from somewhat random Ethereum block times to predictable 12-second intervals.
More than 120 developers from all corners of the globe, connected only by their Wi-Fi signal and a passion for developing what they believe is the future of the internet, have come together to design and implement the Ethereum Merge. Their collective action to enact what is likely the largest decarbonization of any industry in history provides a compelling model that future industry and social overhauls might adopt.
Diversity and openness on the blockchain
One ethos that runs throughout the Ethereum ecosystem is its diversity and openness. As a result of the Merge, Ethereum has laid the foundation for a successful transition from a monolithic blockchain to a more modular blockchain that incorporates several execution layer clients, consensus layer clients and layer-2 networks. This robust architecture ensures a healthy and scalable network where rewards for participation are more equitably distributed.
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PoS not only democratizes network participation by requiring lower resource requirements for validator nodes but is also constructed such that economies of scale do not apply in the same way they do for PoW mining. While there will still be players with more nodes, running one will be less compute-intensive, and…
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