What is the Ethereum merge?

The Ethereum Merge is the joining of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) Beacon Chain with the Ethereum Mainnet to transition the Ethereum blockchain off the legacy proof-of-work (PoW) system. With the completion of the merge on Sept. 15, 2022, Ethereum made the switch to a PoS model. That gave birth to Ethereum 2.0, a new version of Ethereum.

What is Ethereum 2.0?

Ethereum 2.0 is not a new asset, but is the name given to a set of updates coming to the Ethereum Network. The initial updates will see Ethereum merging with the Beacon Chain and transitioning from a proof of work (PoW) consensus to proof of stake (PoS). Over the next few years, additional updates such as sharding will roll out.

What is a'merge' in Ethereum?

The Merge was the joining of the original execution layer of Ethereum (the Mainnet that has existed since genesis) with its new proof-of-stake consensus layer, the Beacon Chain. It eliminated the need for energy-intensive mining and instead enabled the network to be secured using staked ETH.

Is Ethereum a 'Consensus layer'?

With Ethereum 2.0 no longer in the official vocabulary, the Ethereum Foundation also asked users to refer to the Ethereum Mainnet as the “execution layer” rather than ETH1 and the Beacon Chain as the “consensus layer,” rather than ETH2. This terminology, they believe, better reflected their goals for the platform.