Ethernet merger, The Era of Large Mining Machine Mining Rocked

The original Ethernet uses the PoW (proof-of-work) proof-of-work mechanism, in which node “miners” compete for the right to pack according to their computing power, and get the reward of packing. Now, with the PoS (proof-of-stake) proof-of-equity mechanism, the Etherpad has bid farewell to the era of large-scale mining machines, and holders can “mine” through Staking Etherpad tokens (ETH), with a pledge threshold of The pledge threshold is 32 ETH.

According to the article “Casper’s Past, Present and Future” written by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ether, the research of proof of equity of Ether started in January 2014, starting from Slasher Protocol.

In March 2015, Vinay Gupta, an Ether developer, wrote about the four stages of Ether’s development and planned to implement proof of stake in the fourth stage, “Serenity”, and in 2020, the Ether beacon chain will go live.

On April 11, 2022, Ether completes the first shadow fork and starts the merger test network from PoW to PoS. In September 2022, Ether completes the last shadow fork, the network is ready for migration, and the “merger” of Ether is approaching step by step, entering the countdown. The timing of the merger is influenced by block difficulty and real-time arithmetic, and will be executed when the total terminal difficulty (TTD) reaches a specific value, at which point most of the ethereum on-chain ecosystem shifts to a new proof-of-interest chain.

Since mid-July, the Ether price has returned to $1,000 and oscillated upwards, having broken the $2,000 barrier in August before falling back. The Ether price climbed slightly for an hour before the merger took place, and fluctuated after falling briefly below $1,600 before the merger.

In July, Ether rallied 56.69%, while other cryptocurrencies in the same period rebounded by an average of about 15%.

On the one hand, this reflects the relatively high expectations for Ether to solve the problems of low transaction efficiency and high transaction costs in the future, and on the other hand, with reference to the 40%-70% asset pledge of other PoS algorithm networks, the current pledge rate of Ether 2.0 is still less than 12%, and it can be expected that there is still a large room for development after Merge The pledge rate of Ether 2.0 is currently less than 12%, and it can be expected that there is still more room for development after Merge.

OKLink Blockchain Browser shows that the current PoW algorithm Ethernet blockchain will pack a block about every 15 seconds, and each block will contain 150-300 transactions, with low transaction efficiency.

For the motivation of this consensus algorithm layer change, the market generally believes that it can reduce the energy consumption brought by running miners, change the user transaction fee (Gas Fee), assist in realizing the expansion of Ether and improve the system throughput. 2020 November 4, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ether, has issued an article to promote the PoS mechanism, the content of which has triggered industry discussions.
Ether’s shift from PoW to PoS consensus has been controversial. At the beginning of blockchain development, mainstream coins such as Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin were based on the PoW consensus algorithm, which was considered to be the core mechanism of decentralization. In addition to the “belief” of “decentralization”, interests are also driving the development of events.

The “PoW” adherents have found a place in the fork chain of Ether, and Bitmain, a major “miner”, has publicly supported ETC, the old fork chain of Ether.

The arbitrage space brought by ETHw (EthereumPoW) is also harvesting users. At the same time, the fork replicates information such as ChainID and possible replay attack (replay attack), which also overshadows the forked chain.

The graphics card market may receive some impact as a result. Some miners said they will switch to “Ether Classic (ETC)” to continue mining, which has been shown in the price of ETC so far this year. In addition, the Ethermine merger has also opened up opportunities in the Staking market, and some Ethermine mining pools have also launched staking-related transformation programs. in late August 2022, the mining pool Ethermine (Bitfly) launched Ethermine Staking, an Ethermine pledge service.