Why is the Ethereum Merge postponed?
A difficulty bomb was hidden in Ethereum’s programming to induce verifiers to approve the merging in 2015. Earlier last week, a prototype of the merging went online for a beta test. Last Friday, Ethereum core developers chose to postpone the management of the “difficulty bomb,” which is the critical trigger in Ethereum’s long-awaited “Merge” to August 2022. This would transition the platform from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake agreement, this would also make the blockchain significantly more productive and energy-efficient, reducing its carbon footprint.
What is the need for a difficulty bomb?
Ethereum is now backed by verifiers (or miners), who utilize distant technology to address complex math issues to register and validate transactions, similar to the Bitcoin network. After the merge, members will instead wager coins to process payments, raising fears that certain auditors may refuse proof-of-stake. To avoid this problem, the difficulty bomb raises the block complexity (the time required for validators to validate and add a payment to the network) dramatically over time. Over time, the relatively close block resistance makes it almost impossible for validators to generate transaction records, therefore ending proof-of-work on Ethereum.
On the other side, if indeed the “difficulty bomb” is released at the incorrect time, Ethereum will be suspended before the merge is finished, resulting in terrible financial results. According to a few estimations, switching to PoS will cut the Ethereum platform’s energy requirements by approximately 99.9%. Other PoS platforms, such as Polygon as well as Fantom Opera, have low power requirements as opposed to other PoW systems.
Current situation of Ethereum
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest virtual currency by market valuation, fell by double digits yesterday and has dropped 19 percent in the last two weeks due to a mixture of macroeconomic indicators (tech stocks also tanked, due to a higher-than-expected increase in inflation), but the Ropsten Testnet merge test earlier this week appears to have done hardly anything to help. ETH has presently fallen 69% below its all-time peak of $4,891.70 in November 2021.
