A New Stage in Ethereum 2.0: The Merge

3 min readAug 31, 2022

Ethereum 2.0 became one of the cryptocurrency industry’s most talked about developments following Vitalik Buterin’s presentation at the Ethereum Developers Conference (Devcon) in 2018. Buterin then tweeted out an Ethereum 2.0 roadmap in March 2020, exciting the whole cryptocurrency community. The transition to Ethereum 2.0 will consist of various stages rather than a single change.

Ethereum 2.0’s primary purpose is to increase Ethereum’s transaction capacity, reduce fees, and make the network more sustainable. It has also been announced that with Ethereum 2.0, the Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol will be replaced by a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol. With this switch in consensus mechanism, some predict that Ethereum 2.0 will use 99.95% less energy than Ethereum 1.0.

It was previously announced that the Ethereum 2.0 would take place in three stages:

Stage 0 — Beacon Chain
Stage 1 — Shard Chain
Stage 2 — State Execution

What is The Merge?

The Merge, which was only announced recently, is planned as an interim stage in the Ethereum 2.0 update schedule.

Because The Merge has been added to the roadmap, the transition to Ethereum 2.0 will now take place in 3.5 phases.

Phase 0 — Late 2020: The Beacon Chain is launched. It uses PoS but the main Ethereum blockchain continues to use PoW.
Phase 1 — Mid 2021: Implementation of the Shard chain, seen as an important phase of scaling.
Phase 1.5 — Q3 of 2022: Merger of the original chain using the PoW protocol and the new chain using the PoS protocol.
Phase 2 — and beyond: Further development of Ether accounts, transactions, and smart contracts.

Ethereum’s plan is for the Beacon Chain, a PoS consensus layer that coordinates the network, to merge with the main Ethereum chain working with the PoW protocol will form the 1.5 stage. This stage, The Merge, will see the entire network switching to the PoS protocol.

The PoS model will maintain decentralization and lay the groundwork for the next update, Sharding.

Sharding is a process that will increase transaction throughput, contribute to Ethereum scalability, and likely reduce gas fees for the end user.

It is expected that institutional positions in Ethereum will increase because of an ETH supply reduction after The Merge, reduced energy consumption with PoS and improved security over the network.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about The Merge and Ethereum 2.0

Beware of people who attempt to contact you through social media, Telegram, email, and other channels regarding The Merge and Ethereum 2.0 updates in an attempt to scam you. This update will have no impact on the Ethereum (ETH) balances of BtcTurk | PRO users.

What will happen to my Ethereum (ETH) assets when The Merge happens?

The Merge, defined as the intermediate transaction process of Ethereum 2.0, will see the Ethereum blockchain use Proof-of-Stake (PoS) rather than the Proof of Work (PoW) protocol.
It is predicted that Ethereum 2.0, using PoS, will use 99.95% less energy than Ethereum 1.0.
Ethereum’s team have made clear that the transition will have no impact on ETH assets people are holding.
No action is required by ETH holders during this process.

Will The Merge and Ethereum 2.0 affect my Ethereum (ETH) assets in my BtcTurk | PRO account?

After the transition, the name and ticker symbol of the Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency will not change. They will stay the same.
Ethereum (ETH) crypto assets in your BtcTurk | PRO account will not be affected. They will also remain the same.
Updated transactions are part of a protocol transition made by Ethereum’s own software development team.

Is there anything I need to do during The Merge transition?

If you’re a user who holds Ethereum (ETH) assets on your BtcTurk | PRO account or cold wallet, you do not need to do anything during or after The Merge stage.
This is a process that developers are working on for the Ethereum blockchain. BtcTurk | PRO users do not need to take any action.