Ethereum blockchain is slated for one of the biggest updates since its inception, as it will transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mining consensus from its current proof-of-work (PoW) one. The Merge date is scheduled for Sept. 15, after the successful Goerli test net integration — the final test net merger before the actual transition. Ether (ETH), the native token, was on a bullish surge after the announcement of the Merge date in July with the ETH price rising to a new six-month high of over $2,000 but failed to consolidate the critical resistance. The bullish enthusiasm in terms of token …

The Ethereum Foundation has announced it will be increasing the network’s bug bounty payouts fourfold ahead of the blockchain’s transition to Proof-of-Stake. In a Wednesday blog post, the Ethereum Foundation said between Aug. 24 and Sept. 8, all “Merge-related bounties for vulnerabilities” will be quadrupled for white hats testing the network. According to the foundation, identifying “critical bugs” — those that have a high impact or likelihood of a high impact on the blockchain — will be worth up to $1 million. The bounty program also allows submissions for low, medium, and high risk bugs. • Merge Bug Bounty Bonus: …

Bitcoin (BTC) first drew attention to the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm, a process that demonstrated users could maintain a secure, decentralized blockchain if only at the expense of large amounts of energy. As history would have it, Bitcoin grew in popularity and faced trouble scaling to accommodate the sheer number of transactions needed. Recognizing the gap in technology, alternatives were developed, the most popular being proof-of-stake (PoS). With staking, holders of a crypto asset could participate in the transaction validation process by locking their funds. Each participant would receive compensation in proportion to the amount staked, eliminating the need for …

iFinex, the company responsible for Bitfinex Derivatives, announced on Aug. 23 the launch of a new service offering available to users before the highly-anticipated Ethereum (ETH) Merge. The exchange now offers Ethereum Chain Split Tokens (CSTs). Tokens available to users represent the two systems involved in the Merge: ETHW (PoW) and ETHS (PoS). Bitfinex released the new trading tokens for users to have the possibility to trade on the potential forking event. The coins will be available through the Bitfinex derivatives platform. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino said they released these new tokens better to prepare users for all eventual possibilities …

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s most-valued cryptocurrency, has the potential to be a significant energy consumer in the future, but only if it reaches several million dollars, according to new estimates by Arcane Research. Crypto research and analytics firm Arcane Research on Monday released a report estimating the development in Bitcoin's energy usage towards 2040. Authored by Arcane Research analyst Jaran Mellerud, the report points out that Bitcoin’s future energy consumption differs massively depending on the future Bitcoin price alongside factors like transaction fees, electricity prices and others. If the BTC price hits $2 million in 17 years, Bitcoin may consume …

In light of the recent ban on crypto mixing tool Tornado Cash and the subsequent arrest of the Tornado Cash developer, there has been a growing debate around what crypto services providers would choose between decentralization and censorship in form of compliance. The question has become more prominent as Ethereum (ETH) is moving from its current proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mining consensus. With the transition less than a month away, a user pointed out that more than 66% of validators on the Beacon chain (Ethereum PoS chain) will adhere to the United States Department of the Treasury's …

Ethereum (ETH) is all set to transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network by Sept. 15-16 that would see an end to its current proof-of-work (PoW) chain. This event would eliminate PoW mining from the Ethereum ecosystem. The terminal total difficulty has been set to 58750000000000000000000. This means the ethereum PoW network now has a (roughly) fixed number of hashes left to mine.https://t.co/3um744WkxZ predicts the merge will happen around Sep 15, though the exact date depends on hashrate. pic.twitter.com/9YnloTWSi1 — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 12, 2022 In light of such a major upgrade, the PoW proponents, especially miners, have decided to keep …

After years of waiting, Ethereum is finally prepared to become a full-fledged proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. Besides Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH), the valuation of several other tokens have not only benefited greatly, but could also keep outperforming ETH after the Merge. Ethereum steps closer toward the Merge The leading smart contract platform completed the last of its three public testnets dubbed "Goerli," on Aug. 11. Therefore, there should be no delays in Ethereum's "Merge," expected to go live on Sep. 19. Ether price jumped 5% to approximately $1,950, its highest level in over two months, after the Goerli update. Meanwhile, …

The Ethereum Merge may be coming sooner than planned, after core developers announced a tentative Merge date of Sept. 15, which will see the blockchain transition to Proof-of-Stake. The Ethereum mainnet Merge date came into view after core developers such as Tim Beiko and Prysmatic Labs co-founder Terence Tsao agreed in an Aug. 11 developer call it would be when Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) hits 58750000000000000000000. This was confirmed in a Github post titled "Tentative mainnet TTD" which was committed to by Beiko on Aug. 11. While the exact date and TTD could be still be changed, the successes of …

Ethereum's native asset Ether (ETH) has more than doubled in value since bottoming out at around $885 in June 2022. Now, it eyes a decisive move toward $2,500 in August per a slew of technical and fundamental indicators. Ethereum chain split means more tokens A big part of Ether's ongoing rally has appeared due to "the Merge," a network upgrade that will switch Ethereum's underlying blockchain protocol from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in September. Simultaneously, switching to PoS will also eliminate the role of miners in the chain by replacing them with validators. This fear has prompted Chandler Guo, …

An Ethereum fork token that does not yet exist, dubbed ETHW, is trading under $100 across several crypto exchanges after debuting at $30. ETHW and ETHS begin trading ETHW is the native asset to the ETHPoW chain. ETHPoW, for now, is a possible new chain backed by proof-of-work (PoW) miners as the original chain switches to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus in September's "Merge" event. Meanwhile, the proof-of-stake version ETHS is trading at around $1,600, or the difference between the ETH price and the ETHW price. We promise there won't be any premining or additional token issuance. So there is nowhere to …

Institutional investors are piling into Ether-based digital asset funds, which have recorded seven straight weeks of positive inflows, according to the latest CoinShares report. Said inflows reached $16.3 million last week, adding to a total of $159 million in inflows over the last seven weeks. CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill on Aug. 8 said the rise in market sentiment for Ethereum-focused products is largely due to “greater clarity” relating to the upcoming Merge, which is set for Sep. 19, with Butterfill stating: “We believe this turn-around in investor sentiment is due to greater clarity on the timing of The …