While there are 50 days a week to September 19, the cryptocurrency community has been debating whether or not the Ethereum developers will delay the date set in pencil for The Merge. Additionally, on July 27, crypto hedge fund Galois Capital published a poll on Twitter indicating that over 33% of respondents think Ethereum could split in two once again.
The delayed merger in September becomes a topical conversation
Following the announcement of the so-called set date for The Merge, the price of ethereum (ETH) and ethereum classic (ETC) has skyrocketed against the US dollar. Ethereum developer and Beacon chain community director Superphiz explained that “the timeline is not final,” but the planning timeline he shared stated that The Merge could be rolled out in the week of September 19. Essentially, The Merge will complete the transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) chain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model.
Almost immediately after the announcement, Ethereum’s price jumped significantly to the upside after previously suffering from the bear market downturn. The ETH gained 62.4% against the US dollar over the past 30 days. However, with the date approaching, there is far less hype and people are now wondering if the Ethereum developers will delay the fork of The Merge. The subject of The Merge’s delay was a topical conversation on social media this weekend. An individual he wrote:
I think everyone is too fixated on the September deadline for The Merge to think everything needs to be fixed within the next few months. But what if the Ethereum Foundation delays it again?
Unpopular question:
What is the probability of “Another delay in the union”? #ETH– CryptoVizArt.btc 📈 (@CryptoVizArt) July 29, 2022
An Ethereum supporter says this is a “low probability bear scenario if the union is delayed”
There are multiple Twitter threads discussing the possibility of The Merge being delayed and a host of theoretical scenarios. An individual named Chris who calls himself a “retired degen” posted a thread showing the benefits of The Merge if it is successfully implemented with no problems.
Hedge Fund Dude Discovered Ethereum Last Week: “Delay the merger, you really need to rethink this roadmap that thousands of people have been running against for years” https://t.co/8Vdnq6XYaA
– Mike D🫡das (🏌️♂️, ⛳️) (@mdudas) July 31, 2022
Chris he insists The merger would reduce the energy consumption of the blockchain network by 99.95%, make ETH deflationary and institutional investors flock to the project. However, Chris also noted that a bearish scenario could occur if The Merge is delayed again.
“A low-probability bear scenario is if the merger is delayed, AGAIN,” Chris explained. “A delay is not highly likely because the developers are confident enough to set a date for the event. But then some testnets still need to be migrated from PoW to PoS. Namely Goelri and Ethereum’s Sepolia.
Galois Capital Survey triggers discussions on ETH2 Delay and Chain Split
In addition to the large number of Twitter discussions talking about the delay of The Merge, the cryptocurrency hedge fund Galois Capital has shared a survey asking if people think Ethereum will split into two chains after The Merge’s implementation. 53.7% of respondents said The Merge will go smoothly, but 33.1% think the chain could split. If it split, there would be a PoW and PoS token even though a PoW version of ETH already exists.
Question 1: what happens during the merge? If choice 2 or 3 move on to questions 2-5.
– Galois Capital (@Galois_Capital) July 27, 2022
The Ethereum Classic (ETC) network was introduced after the fork in 2016 to remedy the DAO hack and the Galois Capital survey shows that 51.8% of respondents think ETH miners will switch to ETC.
Simply delay the merge / fork and fix it.
– Galois Capital (@Galois_Capital) July 31, 2022
Also the Galois Capital survey asked if there was a non-trivial stablecoin company, Tether would support a PoW token separating from the ETH PoS network. However, Tether’s CTO Paolo Ardoino She said Sunday that Tether plans to “support ETH2”. also Ardoino stressed out that “the support of ETH2 will be seamless” and he added:
It is not about what I / we prefer between PoW / PoS. Stablecoins should act responsibly and avoid disruption to users. Especially for [decentralized finance] it’s really delicate.
What do you think of the recent discussions about The Merge update and the questions about the possibility of Ethereum splitting into two chains? Do you think The Merge will experience any delays or issues when the update is rolled out? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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