Ethereum Merge Deep Dive: What happens after the Merge? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 253 - by cryptohunt.it

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Welcome to the final episode of this week’s Cryptohunt Jam Ethereum Merge special where we spend a bit more than a minute each day this week to explain crypto - in plain english! And now that the Merge has succeeded, let’s take a look at Ethereum’s future together!

With the Merge, Ethereum’s energy just dropped by a crazy 99.95%. To us, who firmly believe that protecting our planet should be the first priority, that reduction itself is amazing progress.

But Ethereum has two other big, intertwined problems, which have yet to be addressed. It is still slow, and transactions are expensive. So let’s find how and what Ethereum is doing to fix those.

Remember that blockchains like Ethereum process transactions in blocks - hence the name. Blocks are just several transactions bundled together so a computer can process them more efficiently. Before the Merge, Ethereum processed a block every 13 seconds. After the Merge, it’s every 12. You can easily see: That’s not exactly a game changer.

That still means that Ethereum only supports an average of around 30 transactions per second. Imagine that - more are happening every second in a single shopping mall. Visa alone processes almost 2000 per second and can likely process many more if they happened. If Ethereum wants to become universal money, it will need to catch up big time.

The second problem? Costs per transaction. Ethereum allows people to jump ahead in line if they pay more in transaction fees than others. And since those 30 transactions per second isn’t a lot, people bid like crazy: Currently, fees per transaction are sitting around $1, but during times of high demand they have been over $50. Either one is not feasible for everyday purchases.

And that’s why Ethereum is addressing the amount of transactions it can comfortably handle: An upcoming update will bring a strangely named feature called “sharding” sometime next year. This will vastly increase Ethereums throughput. And that, in turn, will reduce transaction fees dramatically as well.

We hope you enjoyed our week on Ethereum’s Merge… Drop us an email at podcast@cryptohunt.it to let us know - we love feedback!

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.