In December 2013, Vitalik Buterin, Anthony Di Iorio, Mihai Alisie, Amir Chetrit, and Charles Hoskinson founded and developed Ethereum. Hoskinson later went on to found the Cardano blockchain platform.

Since its creation, Ethereum has become the second largest blockchain platform by cryptocurrency market capitalization, behind only Bitcoin. ETH, the network’s native token, is the method of payment used to make transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

The Ethereum Merge is a long-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum network that will see the network move from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm to a proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm. This upgrade has been planned for years and is seen as a necessary step in Ethereum’s development roadmap. The switch to PoS will offer a number of advantages, including improved scalability, security, and energy efficiency.

In other words, the Merge is the shift from PoW to PoS for the Ethereum blockchain. This means that instead of people needing to run powerful computer processes in order to mine ETH, they can deposit ETH in exchange for rewards. The Ethereum Mainnet and Beacon Chain will come together and operate as one structure.

The goal of the merge is to reduce the amount of energy required for transaction validation and to improve the long-term sustainability of Ethereum.

This upgrade, which has been in the works for over a year, is aimed at making the Ethereum network more efficient and scalable. Buterin said in a recent blog post that the Merge is now “essentially finalized,” and that a testnet version of the upgrade will be launched in the next few weeks. He added that the mainnet launch is now “likely” to happen around September 15th.

Although the Merge will not immediately reduce gas fees, it is hoped that it will do so next year when Shard Chains are introduced. These will make Ethereum more scalable and should cut down on the congestion issues that every Ethereum user has become accustomed to.