The Merge upgrade for Ethereum (ETH), which primarily sought to transition the blockchain into a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, has been revealed to have a positive impact on the creation of new Ethereum blocks. The Merge was considered one of the most significant upgrades for Ethereum. As a result of the hype, numerous misconceptions around cheaper gas fees and faster transactions plagued the crypto ecosystem, which was debunked by Cointelegraph. However, some of the evident improvements experienced by the blockchain post-Merge include a steep increase in daily block creation and a substantial decrease in average block time. On Sept. 15, …

After several months of delays, the Cardano Vasil upgrade and hard fork has finally gone live as of Thursday at 9:44 pm UTC, bringing “significant performance and capability” enhancements to the blockchain. The success of the Cardano mainnet hard fork was announced by blockchain company Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) on Twitter on Thursday, while others also observed the hard fork tick over in a live Twitter Spaces with Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson. #Vasil mainnet HFC event successful! We’re happy to announce that today, at 21:44:00 UTC, the IOG team, in collaboration with the @CardanoStiftung, successfully hard forked the Cardano …

The Cardano Vasil upgrade is set to take place in less than 24 hours on Sept. 22, with the Cardano team noting all three “critical mass indicators” needed to trigger the upgrade are now met. A Sept. 21 update on Twitter by the company behind Cardano, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) states within the last 48 hours 13 cryptocurrency exchanges had confirmed their readiness for the hard fork, representing over 87% of Cardano’s (ADA) liquidity. With this latest addition we have met all 3 critical mass indicators: 39 exchanges upgraded (87,59% by liquidity) Over 98% of mainnet blocks are now …

Ethereum (ETH) is heading for the most significant upgrade in its history, which is scheduled to happen at around 5:27am UTC on Sept. 15. Those wanting to watch the Ethereum network make its historic shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) in real-time will have plenty of options to choose from. The Ethereum Foundation has scheduled an Ethereum Mainnet Merge Viewing Party live stream ready to go live on YouTube around 4:00 am UTC, which is roughly an hour and a half before the estimated time of the Merge. The Merge will take place when the network reaches a total terminal difficulty of …

Cardano (ADA) will undergo a major network update called "Vasil" on Sept. 22, potentially making its blockchain more scalable and cheaper. Nonetheless, the news has failed to spark any decisive upside momentum in ADA's market. Macro factors weigh on ADA's best upside scenario In detail, ADA's price has risen approximately 3.5% to $0.51 since the Vasil launch announcement, including a circa 14% rally followed by its near-perfect wipeout. In other words, traders initially bought the Vasil hype but were quick to exit markets, as illustrated by the price action below. Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson blamed "macro factors" for ADA's underperformance …

The Bellatrix upgrade preparing Ethereum for the Merge was successfully completed on Sept. 6 - however concerns were raised over an almost one in ten missed block rate across the last 600 slots. The Bellatrix upgrade updated Ethereum consensus layer clients at epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain prior to the upcoming Merge scheduled for sometime next week . However, 5% of the validators dropped offline during the hard fork, which contributed to the 9% missed block rate, according to Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann. This led some observers to question the network’s readiness for the big switch to proof of …

While Ethereum devs promised no downtime during The Merge, one of the most anticipated Ethereum upgrades, members of the crypto community decided to take proactive measures to ensure the safety of investor funds. In this effort, crypto exchange FTX announced to halt all Ether (ETH) trades on various blockchains until the September upgrade concludes. The Merge upgrade will permanently transition the Ethereum blockchain from proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism — aimed at reducing energy consumption and introducing sharding capabilities. According to Ethereum developers, the Merge is designed to transition to PoS with zero downtime owing to the …

Just when the Ethereum ecosystem reached its final stages in preparing for the much-anticipated upgrade, The Merge, german cloud provider Hetzner, reiterated its stance against allowing mining operations for both proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) applications. Hetzner, a private, centralized cloud provider, stepped in on a discussion around running blockchain nodes, highlighting its terms of services that prohibit customers from using the services for crypto activities. However, the Ethereum community perceived the revelation as a threat to the ecosystem as Hetzner’s cloud services host nearly 16% of the Ethereum nodes, as shown below. In crypto, the reliance on centralized service …

The excitement around Ethereum’s (ETH) upcoming upgrade, The Merge, which involves the merger of two blockchains — Mainnet Ethereum and Beacon Chain — has unknowingly spurred rumors across the community. Termed the most significant upgrade in the history of Ethereum, The Merge does indeed mark the end of proof-of-work (PoW) for the Ethereum blockchain. However, here are five misconceptions that stand out among the rest. Misconception 1: Ethereum gas fees will reduce after The Merge Ethereum’s impending upgrade will reduce Ethereum’s infamous gas fees (transaction fees) is one of the biggest misconceptions circulating among investors. While reduced gas fees tops …

After Ropsten and Sepolia, Goerli was the last remaining testnet scheduled to undergo the merge, officially becoming a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain as of 1:45 am UTC, Aug. 11. The Goerli testnet merge has been finalized without any major issues today, suggesting that there will be no delays to the tentative Ethereum Merge date set for Sept. 19. Numerous key devs and figures in the Ethereum ecosystem have taken to Twitter to share their enthusiasm over the successful merge, such as core dev Preston Van Loon and podcaster/ETH proponent Anthony Sassano (@sassal0x) who bullishly noted to his 216,400 followers that “next …

Hot on the heels of an official announcement from USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle Pay, stablecoin giant Tether has now also officially confirmed its support behind Ethereum’s upcoming Merge upgrade and switch to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism-based blockchain. The announcement came on the same day as its stablecoin competitor, who pledged they will only support Ethereum’s highly anticipated upgrade. In an Aug. 9 statement, Tether labeled the Merge one of the “most significant moments in blockchain history” and outlined that it will work in accordance with Ethereum’s upgrade schedule, which is currently slated to go through on Sept. 19. …

As Ethereum shifts into proof-of-stake (PoS), a decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher has argued that the platform can overtake Bitcoin's (BTC) throne as the top dog in crypto. In a Twitter thread, researcher Vivek Raman highlighted that the upcoming Ethereum Merge could create a better economic structure for the smart contract platform. According to Raman, the shift into PoS lowers Ether (ETH) inflation, gives better security and positions the crypto as a digital bond. Raman said that after the Merge, ETH inflation will drop from 4.3% to 0.22%. The researcher explained that this gives the ecosystem a 95% reduction in issuance, …