An Ethereum developer who has spent the last 4.5 years in network upgrade explains why Merge will be the most important event in crypto history since the invention of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Ethereum developer has been working on Merge for the past 4.5 years
cryptocoin.comAs you follow, crypto is an industry known for high turnover and volatility, accustomed to both young tourist investors and FOMO capital allocators. Ethereum developer Ben Edgington takes a different approach to crypto. Edgington, founder and product leader of the open-source Ethereum consensus client Teku, has been working on Merge, the highly anticipated upgrade to Blockchain, for the past 4.5 years. For an area that’s only 15 years old, that’s almost a century.
From approximately 7am to 10pm every day, it focuses on ‘upside down’ and Ethereum’s network. Edgington spends half his time working on Teku for Ethereum software company ConsenSys. He spends the other half on a technical book he wrote on the upgrade series of the smart contract network.
“What inspires is the idea that we are building a global infrastructure”
Ben Edgington says that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is even older than his father. Edgington has been working on upgrading celebrity and institutional crypto partnerships long before mainstream hype. Even years before the launch of other popular layer-1 blockchains like Solana and Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, he dreamed of ‘sitting at the table to participate in the development of the Ethereum protocol’. Edgington says:
We believe we are building infrastructure to support decentralized projects, perhaps for decades. Building it right is critically important. So what inspires is the idea that we are building a global infrastructure on which others will build incredible applications.
“At Ethereum Merge, the target is technical and environmental, not price-oriented”
From Wall Street to digital asset hedge funds, many are waiting for Merge as a time to capitalize on potential bullish and high-yield trades. Edgington says this is definitely not their goal as developers. To this end, he makes the following statement:
I’m not really interested in price speculation. I’ve personally been working on this thing for years. Crypto has experienced a series of ups and downs. The target is technical and environmental. The price departs from that for me.
“Ethereum Merge means changing the engine mid-flight!”
Ben Edgington says that the Merge is the third most important event in crypto history, notched right after the invention of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The upgrade, scheduled for mid-September, will be the most ambitious thing the industry has ever done. Edgington comments on Merge:
The upgrade fundamentally reconfigures a blockchain worth hundreds of billions of dollars. That’s why we replace the engine mid-flight. The entire infrastructure of Ethereum is moving to this Proof of Stake platform. So all DeFi activity, all NFT activity, everything that happens on Ethereum is affected. That’s hundreds of billions of dollars in activity.
Environmental impact of the upgrade on the network
Ben Edgington says another reason it’s getting attention is because of the environmental impact of the upgrade on the network. Merge, which brings Ethereum from the energy-intensive Proof of Work to the Proof of Stake model, is touted as a way to reduce energy use by 99%. The Ethereum developer additionally notes:
Ethereum emits almost a megaton of carbon dioxide. I find this appalling. Putting an end to this has been a huge and always a big push for me.
What does Merge mean for stakers?
From an economic perspective, Ben Edgington says the upgrade could also double the staking income. This will allow some users to earn more passive income by contributing to the Ethereum network, making it more secure and protecting their tokens. On this subject, Edgington explains:
What does it mean for Stakers? Basically, it means increased rewards for staking. They become eligible for transaction revenue and MEV, which is the miner-extracted value. It is possible to remove them from blocks by reordering transactions.
But Edgington says he’s not done after Merge. He certainly notes that Ethereum won’t stop building its network anytime soon. Edgington said, “I want to emphasize that this is just the beginning. We’ve had this concept for a long time and it has a lot of moving parts. This is a decade-long program of improvements and upgrades to the protocol. Maybe then it will be possible for us to retire. So, at least I hope,” he says.
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