Wednesday is your last opportunity to buy Ether before the momentous change.
On Wednesday, one of the most significant developments in the history of the cryptocurrency industry is taking place: the system-wide upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain that has been years in the making. Investors have been pouring money into ether, the native token of Ethereum, in the run-up to the revamp.
Ether has increased 32% over the last three months, outpacing Bitcoin’s 9% decline by a wide margin. Analysts claim that the price increase is a result of the anticipation around the merger, although some experts believe the true gains will occur after the merger.
It will require a lot less energy to verify transactions, which has long been a significant issue for the cryptocurrency industry. This is the defining feature of Ethereum’s huge overhaul.
In order to safeguard the network, the proof-of-stake model, which is taking the place of the proof-of-work paradigm, mandates that validators on the network “stake”—that is, remove their ether tokens from circulation for a prolonged period of time—for the network.
Cutting energy use by over 99% will also significantly decrease the entry barrier for institutional investors, who have been wary of appearing to be a part of the climate crisis.
Following the most recent official reading on inflation in the U.S., which penalized risky assets on Tuesday and caused tech companies to have their worst day in more than two years, ether is down almost 6% over the past 24 hours.
According to Jaydeep Korde, CEO of Ethereum infrastructure provider Launchnodes, whether an investor should buy now or wait to see how the merger plays out depends on their time horizon for holding the coins.
The change won’t make Ethereum any faster, less expensive, or more scalable. One developer even told CNBC that one indication that the merger was a complete success would be if the user experience is the same.
Being more of an industry operating system than competing chains, Ethereum has distinguished itself from them. The bulk of apps are built on top of Ethereum, and the merge is the first in a line of updates that will eventually make transactions faster and less expensive.
Despite the new dynamics brought about by the merger, the cryptocurrency market is still likely to be influenced to some extent by pure speculation and unrelated events that have nothing to do with the underlying principles of tokens or blockchain networks.
