Ethereum Foundation Corrects Common Misconceptions Regarding The Merge

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has shared a lot of information to re-educate the members of the public to correct the misconceptions about the prospects of the protocol’s much anticipated The Merge. With many people familiar with Ethereum as a blockchain protocol, not many are aware of what the future holds when the Beacon Chain of Ethereum 2.0 will be merged with the current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocol.

Many users have been wondering if the new Ethereum network will require a specific action like moving the Ether coins from one chain to the other. However, in the clarifications offered by the EF, no actions will be required as all the necessary synchronization will be done across the board.

While many have misconstrued the fact that running a node on the coming Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol will require staking 32 ETH, clarity has been made to showcase this is false. In fact, the Ethereum Foundation has come out to confirm that running a node will not require any Ethereum, and anyone can easily sync their own self-verified copy of Ethereum.

As a further insight, it was revealed that there are two distinct types of nodes in Ethereum and these include those that require capital commitment and those that are not. Those which require capital community need to commit computing resources and staked ETH to propose blocks, earning rewards along the line.

As detailed, users are free to choose any capacity they want to participate in the Ethereum protocol, and the need for capital is optional.

Ethereum Foundation Clarification on ETH2.0’s Speed and Gas Fees

Many have long held onto the thought that the emergence of Ethereum 2.0 is bound to solve the slow speed and high gas fees of the present PoW consensus model. As revealed by the Ethereum Foundation, this is absolutely false.

While the new Ethereum will largely enhance the efficiency of the Ethereum protocol, chances are that the transaction speed is still going to be the same. With the time to finality a key consideration here, the Ethereum Foundation is making a guarantee that this may be more reliable in the coming protocol, but not necessarily faster.

Ethereum 2.0 will also not lead to reduced gas fees as is currently associated with the PoW version of the Ethereum protocol. According to the EF, “Gas fees are a product of network demand relative to the capacity of the network. The Merge deprecates the use of proof-of-work, transitioning to proof-of-stake for consensus, but does not significantly change any parameters that directly influence network capacity or throughput.”

It, however, noted that the availability of rollups on Layer-2 networks will serve as a panacea for this increased gas fee in the long run. This position has strongly been backed by Vitalik Buterin.

While these misconceptions amongst others were corrected, the Ethereum Foundation did confirm that the PoS version being expected will offer more energy efficiency across the board.