The Ethereum blockchain has just undergone the most significant upgrade in its history. However, while many market players expected the price of ETH to skyrocket following the Merge, things haven't quite gone as planned.
What lies ahead for the world's second most valuable cryptocurrency?
The Merge, as previously stated, is the final step in Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake (PoS). The project has been in the works for at least three years, and the Ethereum Foundation has emphasized its importance to the blockchain.
Because of this change, the Ethereum blockchain is expected to improve on several fronts - including the full implementation of ETH staking and carbon neutrality. According to some estimates, it could help to reduce the blockchain's overall carbon footprint by up to 99.9%. The Ethereum Foundation is also expected to make some upgrades to the blockchain regarding transaction speed, although those upgrades might not come until 2023 or 2024.
The Ethereum blockchain will be better suited to support the thousands of decentralized applications (dApps) running on it as it becomes more scalable. At the same time, many developers who abandoned Ethereum or chose one of the "Ethereum killers" due to scalability issues with the blockchain would be incentivized to return.
This means that the value of ETH should skyrocket - at least in the long run. In fact, there is some talk about ETH eventually flipping Bitcoin (BTC) - the asset that has continued to lead it in terms of market cap. As the Ethereum blockchain grows to enjoy more global dominance, the prospects of ETH overtaking BTC seems more realistic.
Unfortunately, while the Ethereum Merge has been a huge success in terms of development, ETH investors have been
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