Starting September 10th at 8:00am EDT/12:00pm UTC, EverRise closed EverBridge and the Native Coin Swap across ALL blockchains because of the ETH Merge. Once the Merge has been completed and Ethereum is running smoothly, we will reopen EverBridge.

Last week, Ethereum’s Beacon Chain underwent the Bellatrix upgrade. This was the last big step towards “The Merge” that will see the blockchain fully transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

The merge is expected to be completed over the next two weeks with most estimates anticipating September 14th. The Merge, officially called the Paris upgrade, will see Ethereum fully transition to become a PoS blockchain.

For years, people have been waiting for “Ethereum 2.0”. There is no doubt that Ethereum is the most widely used smart contract supporting blockchain but high gas fees have turned some users off from the network. The popularity of the blockchain has led to congestion on the network and “gas wars” that price out prospective participants.

It is important to note that the transition to PoS will not immediately solve the problems that affect Ethereum. However, it allows for the necessary upgrades to be made in the future.

With rising energy costs around the world and concerns about environmental impact, many have started to look into the electricity consumption of PoW blockchains. It is estimated that Bitcoin consumes around 150 terawatt-hours of electricity per year. Anyone can mine Bitcoin with a mining rig, a computer optimized to solve the complex mathematical problems that secure the network. More computing power means a better chance of mining the next block but it also requires more electricity to run.

PoS blockchains are able to run with much lower energy requirements. Instead, the blockchain is validated by nodes that have staked a certain amount of cryptocurrency. To validate the upgraded Ethereum blockchain, users will need to stake 32 ETH, or roughly $50,000 worth of Ethereum.

To learn more about the Merge, you can read information from the Ethereum Foundation here.