Ethereum Merge: Google Has A Countdown Timer To Mark This Year's Most-Awaited Crypto Event

Ethereum Merge countdown clock on Google is based on the process’ difficulty and hash rate.

The Merge will essentially see a 99 percent reduction in energy consumption of operations on the Ethereum network.

Source : Bastian Riccardi/Unsplash

The Ethereum Merge is expected to take place this week. Arguable the most-awaited event for crypto enthusiasts, the Merge will the Ethereum network switch from a proof-of-work (PoW) model to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system. This will lead to the creation of Ethereum 2.0, or ETH 2.0. To celebrate the Merge, Google has put up a countdown timer, marked by two cartoon pandas approaching each other slowly as the Merge approaches. 

Ethereum Merge: How to see Google’s countdown timer

To check out the special countdown timer, all you need to do is head over to Google Search, and look up “The Merge”. 

Once you do that, you will see an Ethereum Merge countdown timer, which at the time of writing stood at 1 days 15 hours 54 minutes. Based on the timer, the Merge should take place sometime on September 15. 

The countdown timer is an estimated clock, based on the Merge’s difficulty and hash rate. For those unaware, the hash rate is used to measure computin power on a crypto network, which serves as a primary security indicator. 

As a fun element, Google has added two animated bears — one white and the other black — approaching each other slowly as the Merge approaches. Once the countdown reaches zero, the two bears will fuse together to create a cute black-and-white panda. 

Ethereum Merge: Why is it important?

The Merge will essentially see a 99 percent reduction in energy consumption of operations on the Ethereum network. This will eventually allow greater scalability and cheaper costs. This is entirely a technical update and will not have any direct financial implications, apart from a rise and fall in the prices of crypto tokens such as Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), and others.

In PoS, processing doesn’t use up much energy, transactions are comparatively cheaper, and lastly, it is safe from a major attack on the network, as the compensation structure is designed in a way that renders an attack less advantageous.

In PoS, users have to offer, or stake, their own coins as collateral in order to validate their blocks. Users who stake coins are called validators. These validators are chosen at random to validate the block, or ‘mine’. This reduces competition among stakeholders. 

While earlier reports suggested that you would need to stake 32 Ethereum coins to run a node (sync their own self-verified copy of ETH), the Ethereum network on its official site clarified that “no ETH is required. Not before the Merge, not after the Merge. Not ever.” 

The site also said that the Merge will not reduce gas fees as the Merge is “an expansion of network capacity, and will not result in lower gas fees.”

For those unaware, a gas fee is the maximum amount of energy a user has agreed to pay in order to complete a crypto transaction on a blockchain.