Ethereum Merge or ETH 2.0 is finally happening. Here are the important details that ETH miners, validators and balance holders need to know. The Ethereum Merge is one of the significant Ethereum blockchain upgrades. The merge will join the Ethereum Mainnet (that we use today) to the developing and new Proof of Stake consensus Ethereum layer (Beacon Chain) then that will become the Mainnet execution layer.
Since Ethereum mining requires a lot of energy, the new Proof of Stake consensus will remove the need for consuming intensive energy and the network will use ETH staking system instead. This upgrade is aiming at revolutionizing the Ethereum ecosystem for ease of access, scalability, security and sustenance. As the Beacon Chain gets adopted as the new mainnet execution layer, the mining on Proof of Work will become invalid for block production and the validators will secure the Ethereum Mainnet.
The validator nodes will propose new blocks in the PoS consensus due staking their Ether and taking part in the consensus mechanism. The network will also see future upgrades known as sharding.
When Will Ethereum Merge Happen?
The new Ethereum layer Beacon Chain has been tested extensively, despite many delays previously the transition is finally just a week away. The extensive testing includes testing it on the public testnets and offering many bug bounties to ensure the smooth transfer. Everything has already been done. Finally the merge is in its final stages and a few days away.
If you are following the Ethereum blog, you already know that at this point Ethereum’s Proof of Work Mainnet with its contracts, accounts, balances and blockchain state is still running in parallel with the Beacon Chain Proof of Stake system. The merge will happen when the Proof of Work is completely replaced by Beacon Chain PoS.
Let’s understand it this way. Suppose you are running a Network and it’s powered through a main server. Now you want to move your network to a new more efficient server without affecting anything while it’s still running. Once it’s done, your new Server becomes the main server.
Ethereum Upgrade
Ethereum’s Proof of Work has been the mainnet since its genesis in 2015. It contains all the records of transactions, smart contracts and balance details of every user. Since its beginning the developers have been working keenly to move to PoS. In that pursuit, the Beacon Chain came into existence on December 1, 2020 and has been performing as a significant blockchain running parallel to the PoW mainnet.
At this point Beacon Chain cannot process Mainnet transactions but reaches consensus on its own taking into account the active validators’ contribution to it. Now, its reaching the consensus and once it does, the merge will happen. Once it’s done, it will become a consensus engine for all the network data. 
After The Ethereum 2.0 or Beacon Chain Merge
Once the merge happens PoW switches to PoS, the Beacon Chain will be used to produce blocks instead of mining. The PoS validators will replace the miners and will process and validate transactions.
With merge all the data will also move, so there’s no way any users funds or data gets lost. The history will be saved and moved as it’s now as it will move the entire network of balances and transactions.
What Ethereum Wallet and Balance Holders Need to Do For Ethereum Merge?
Ethereum 2.0 or Merge is the most significant epoch in the history of Blockchain, not just Ethereum’s. Its long term impact will be felt by many. There are few things you need to take into account when the merge is finally happening.
- The users and wallet holders do not need anything to prepare for the Merge. It will just happen naturally, you won’t even feel the jolt.
- If you are holding ETH in your account on DeXes or on blockchain, or even any other assets hosted on Ethereum and you are a non-node-operating staker, you are not required to do anything with your funds or wallets.
- Even though the transition is the fundamental change to the core of Ethereum blockchain, everything will remain intact. You will be able to access everything after the Merge like you did before. There’s nothing you need to upgrade or change.
- There’s a higher chance of scammers trying to steal your Ether while the Merge is happening and asking you to move from “ETH” to “ETH2 Tokens” instead moving your funds into their own wallets. So if you want your funds to be safe just don’t do anything.
What Staking Node Operators Need to Know About ETH Merge?
If you are running your own Node being an ETH staker or an infrastructure node provider, you need to do a few important things for the Merge.
- Since all the execution data from third-party endpoints will not be accessible after the Merge stakers need to run a consensus layer client and an execution layer client, both are important.
- You need to authenticate both execution layer and consensus layer clients with a shared JWT secret so they can be able to securely communicate
- You need to set an address to receive your earned transaction fee tips/MEV.
What dApps And Smart Contract Developers Need to Know About The Merge
The Ethereum Merge is designed and going to be executed in such a way that it leaves minimal to no effect on the smart contracts and the dApps. But being an Ethereum dev you need to understand a few things while we are already heading towards the Merge finally.
All dApps and Ethereum smart contract developers need to know that The Merge is the change to the consensus core, and the changes will be:
- Block structure
- Concept of safe head and finalized blocks
- Slot/block timing
- Opcode changes
- Sources of on-chain randomness
What Ethereum Miners Need to Do After Ethereum 2.0 When The Mining is Over?
There are few things that the Ethereum PoW miners can do. Once Ethereum 2.0 or Merge Consensus is reached there will be no more Ethereum mining. There are few things that the hobbyists Ethereum miners can do:
- If you have been an Ethereum miner since genesis since 2015, you can still continue to be associated with the Network by becoming a Validator and running your own Node. After the Ethereum 2.0 the validators will be paid fees based on the transactions.
- The hobbyist Ethereum miners can move to other mining projects as popular as Ethereum but due to its wide use cases they get little to no attention. One such project is RavenCoin.
What Cryptocurrencies to Mine After Ethereum 2.0?
There are plenty of high paying cryptocurrencies to mine after Ethereum 2.0. The Ethereum miners can turn to these cryptocurrencies to get paid well despite the fact that they used to mine Ethereum they can direct their hashpower to mining other cryptocurrencies. Here is the list of crypto coin tomine like Ethereum.
#1 Ethereum Classic
Ethereum Classic was forked from the Ethereum blockchain and still uses its PoW as law. The Ethereum miners can mine Ethereum Classic and get paid well. There is no human interference required and the coded instructions are executed automatically.
Anyone can mine Ethereum Classic by mining directly into the Pool or using the miners such as Ethminer, Kryptex, NiceHash, and NBMiner and several other miners.
#2 RavenCoin – The Best Coin To Mine After Etherem Merge
RavenCoin is another popular coin that is heavily mined after Ethereum. Most of the miners who do not mine Ethereum or BTC are already mining Raven for years. There are two ways to mine Raven: You can mine Raven directly into the Pool or use a mining service like NiceHas, Kryptex, BMiner, NBMiner, and DamoMiner etc.
#3 LTC – Best For Pool Mining
Litecoin was forked from Bitcoin back in the mining hay days when the sun was still bright and mining was very rewarding. It cut the transaction and provided transaction validation on a much speedy level. It’s aimed to be mined through CPUs and GPUs, today it’s mostly mined though ASICs or in groups.
There are some mining services that can be used to mine Litecoin such as Easy Miner, MultiMiner, GUIMiner Scrypt and CPUminer.
#4 Monero – Best for Mining with The CPUs as Well
Monero is known for its stark privacy and it’s where its usability comes to the forefront. The hardcore DeFi users prefer Monero to any other crypotucrrency. It’s so secure that even the transaction addresses are invisible and it becomes impossible to trackback any of them.
Monero XMR is highly used for the transactions and it has a huge volume due to privacy. It uses RandomX proof of work consensus mechanism and it does not require special equipment or high power GPUs to mine it. On the other hand the payout is very high. For example 1 XMR gets mined after every 24 seconds and the miners get rewarded 4.99 XMR.
What Date Will The Ethereum Merge Happen?
Earlier EF blog announced that the Merge will land around Q3/Q4 of 2022. The initial merge deadline is expected on 19th September 2022 but it’s a soft date so it could change depending on the testnet Goerli merge which seems to have completed. The whole Etherem Dev team, stakeholders and the operators have been working consistently to make the Merge happen.
Ethereum Price Prediction After The Merge
Ethereum price prediction after the Merge can go anyway. It can go up and breakaway from the norms or it can go even down even below $1000. Everyone is hoping high but it does not seem to be sunny. Most of the experts believe ETH price can go down under $1,000. For detailed Ethereum price prediction read this.
What Happens to ETH After The Merge?
This will signal the end of proof-of-work for Ethereum and start the era of a more sustainable, eco-friendly Ethereum. Learn more about Ethereum energy consumption.
The Ethereum Merge which was more popularly reckoned as Ethereum 2.0. Once it happens, it ensures more sustainability due to its eco-friendliness, widespread accessibility and scalability. Its scalability and upgrades are marred while being on Proof of Work, while on PoS it can achieve more scalability, security and sustainability.
