Ethereum merge gets completed. What should investors do?
Premium- Ethereum's software upgrade Merge has been in the works for years to change the way it orders transactions
Major software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, called the Merge, aimed at drastically reducing its energy usage has been completed, Ethereum's co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced in a tweet on Thursday as the blockchain network completed the crypto world’s biggest and most ambitious software upgrade to date.
"The effect of this news has been speculated on ethereum price as the prices have been falling for the last week with approximately 6%. Considering the situation, many exchanges including Unocoin have disabled Ethereum and Ethereum based coins and tokens deposits and Withdrawals. As an advice to the investors, ethereum and ethereum based coins and tokens might be highly volatile after this merger and any uncalculated risk might prove to be fatal," said Sathvik Vishwanath, Co- founder & CEO of Unocoin.
The software upgrade has been in the works for years to change the way Ethereum orders transactions. It is an update to the Ethereum blockchain, which moves it from the current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to the more environment-friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) system.
The news of this merger has increased the hashing power by nearly 200% in just the last 30 days. "From the technical point of view, this shift might take longer than estimated and can take any turn out of predictions. With the new mechanism in place and shifting the entire algorithm might have its own consequences and right now it's too early to predict if it’ll be negative or positive," he added.
Ether surged more than fivefold in 2021, outperforming Bitcoin by a wide margin, in part on optimism over the Merge. Both tokens have struggled since hitting record highs in November, with Ether down more than 50% this year.
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“The spotlight is on Ethereum as it successfully completes the biggest technology upgrade in recent years - the Merge. The momentous event is a culmination of months of meticulous planning and test runs that can be compared to the challenge of changing the engine of a 24-wheeler loaded truck while it is on the move. With a successful merge, Ethereum can await new investors as it transitions to this 2.0 version," said Prashant Kumar, Founder and CEO at weTrade.
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