Ethereum Merge Activation Has Five Major Effects: Andreessen Horowitz

In a detailed post, Ali Yahya called the Merge activation «one of the most important moments in the history of open source» due to its complexity, community-driven character and ability to make Ethereum «a far superior blockchain than it was before.»

Efficiency, security, decentralization: What is special about Merge activation?

General partner of the VC behemoth stressed that this radical upgrade was implemented without shutting down Ethereum (ETH) operations — literally when the blockchain was up and running.

One for the history books. ?https://t.co/ZkZfzwWprQ

— a16z crypto (@a16zcrypto) September 16, 2022

Ethereum (ETH) maintained perfect uptime and Merge activation while thousands of dApps with billions locked were operating as usual.

At the same time, the upgrade is a game changer for Ethereum (ETH) and the Web3 segment as a whole. Namely, post-Merge Ethereum (ETH) will be 100x more energy-efficient compared to its predecessor.

Ethereum on PoS is way more secure: it unlocks the opportunity to punish attackers. Its network participants are incentivized to support the integrity of its consensus as they have «skin in the game.»

Ethereum (ETH) transactions now can not be reversed

Then, despite the price of the entry ticket still being very high — the minimum validator deposit is 32 Ethers — the proof-of-stake version of Ethereum (ETH) is more fair and inclusive than it was in the PoW era.

Last but not least, the PoS design guarantees 100% transaction finality: in no way can post-Merge Ethereum (ETH) transactions be reversed. This, in turn, results in impressive scalability and interoperability advances of PoS Ethereum.

As covered by U.Today previously, the Ethereum (ETH) network, the second largest blockchain, activated its Merge upgrade on the mainnet on Sept. 15, 2022.

With this upgrade activated, Ethereum (ETH) replaces the proof-of-work consensus with a proof-of-stake one.

Source