As we inch closer to a highly anticipated protocol development for Ethereum, some big institutional players may wonder what “the Merge” could mean for them.
The system upgrade, set for September 15, plans to reduce the second-largest blockchain’s energy consumption by about 99% by moving away from proof-of-work, which relies on crypto miners using tons of computing energy to validate transactions, to proof-of-stake, which uses an algorithmic lottery to determine future validators from a pool of “stakers” who lock up funds to secure the network.
After the Merge, the reward subsidy for miners will be reduced by about 90%. At the moment, about 13,000 ETH is mined a day, but after the Merge, it’s expected that only about 1,600 ETH will be issued daily, according to the Ethereum Foundation.
“I think institutional adoption is the next big wave,” Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos, CEO of Metrika, said to TechCrunch. “Back in 2018 when the previous crypto winter happened, a number of VCs were in the wave at that time, but this time financial institutions are riding the wave this crypto winter.”
Basically, Andrikogiannopoulos said he sees these institutions maintaining their faith in Ethereum after the Merge, rain or shine.