Apples and oranges? How the Ethereum Merger Could Affect Bitcoin

Although the Ethereum merger failed to move Bitcoin from a price perspective, the industry believes we have no haven't seen the effects of its switch from PoW to PoS yet.

It's been a month since Ethereum said goodbye to an essential feature that its blockchain shared with Bitcoin (BTC). Called Ethereum Merge, the long-hyped upgrade has been widely celebrated, along with the blockchain ecosystem. However, to the general public or even the average retailer, it felt more like a Star Wars Day celebrated by sci-fi geeks than an early Christmas.

As the Ethereum merger happened on Sept. 15, the larger blockchain ecosystem spun off from proof-of-work (PoW), the power-intensive consensus mechanism that powers Bitcoin. The Ethereum blockchain now operates on a more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism that requires no mining, leaving thousands of miners around the world scratching their heads.

In terms of price, Bitcoin has yet to be hit by the fundamental shift in its nearest competitor. A whole month has passed since the Ethereum merger, and the price of BTC is still stuck between $18,000 and $20,000.

However, the mainstream mainstream narrative that “Bitcoin should contribute to the world, not destroy it by depleting energy resources” is rekindled with Ethereum’s significant shift to a system that keeps the blockchain alive with consumption minimal resources.

Cointelegraph reached out to industry insiders to get a clearer picture of the impact of the Ethereum merger on Bitcoin.

"PoW was a dead end for Ethereum," says Tansel Kaya, senior lecturer at Kadir Has University and CEO of blockchain developer Mindstone, "Because an Ethereum network that doesn't scale can't hold its own. promises".

However, the Bitcoin community is not happy with how its biggest price competitor has taken, according to...