On September 15th, a significant event took place that will go down in history: the Beacon Chain merged with the Ethereum mainnet. The leading blockchain made its first-ever change to the consensus algorithm. This article will evaluate the merger and what it means for the community.
Key Points
– The Ethereum network underwent a critical upgrade process called the Merge, which involved changing the consensus algorithm from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). The upgrade aimed to make the blockchain platform more scalable, secure, and decentralized.
– The successful Bellatrix upgrade on the Beacon Chain kicked off on September 6th, 2022. Then, as part of the Paris upgrade on September 15th, the Merge was completed, and Ethereum successfully transitioned to a PoS network.
– After Ethereum’s transition to PoS, miners on the network were replaced by validators. Validators are required to hold a certain amount of Ether (ETH) to contribute to creating and validating new blocks on the network. In return for their work, validators receive rewards in newly minted ETH. Currently, a validator can expect to earn around 4-4.5% income from their active assets in the PoS pool.
– Ethereum’s next significant upgrades will include transitioning to a new Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) that supports multiple programming languages for smart contracts and introducing sharding for scalability.
When did the Merge happen?
– The Ethereum team first launched a separate network called the Beacon Chain. This chain was designed to allow users to stake ETH through a smart contract, locking their funds. As of August 29th, 2022, the Beacon Chain had over 420,000 validators holding 13.47 million ETH.
– The Merge began with the Bellatrix upgrade on the Beacon Chain on September
Nihai Kılavuz: Birleşme ve Ethereum’un Proof of Stake’e Geçişi Hakkında
