The date for the Ethereum Merge has been set. After a successful simulation on the testnet “Görli”, the community has now agreed that the consensus change should take place on September 15.
You can find out more about the consequences of the biggest upgrade in the history of Ethereum in the current issue of BTC-ECHO magazine.
In view of this monumental software upgrade of Ethereum, the question for many investors is whether one could benefit from the merge. We took a closer look at three areas that you should have on the note.
1. Ethereum Proof of Stake Forks
For the Ethereum mining industry, the merge marks the end of an era that has been extremely profitable for years. It is therefore in your interest that after the merge there is an ETH Proof of Work (ETHPOW) fork on which you can continue to monetize your computing power.
Some ETH miners have already announced that they want to support a Proof of work-based version of the Ethereum blockchain. In addition, other personalities in the crypto space, such as Justin Sun, have pledged their support for ETHPOW and plan to list the ETHPOW token.
Although it is currently unclear whether ETHPOW tokens have long-term value, crypto users can still prepare for potential forks. In order to receive such ETHPOW tokens, you only have to hold ether on a non-custodial wallet, such as MetaMask, during the merge.
As a result, you get ETHPOW tokens at the merge in a ratio of 1:1 to your ether tokens. You could then keep these ETHPOW tokens or sell them on an exchange.
2. Liquid Staking Token
Liquid staking DeFi protocols such as Lido Finance or Rocket Pool have become increasingly popular in recent months. They allow users to stake any amount of ETH – without having to set up their own node.
Users can deposit their ETH into such a DeFi protocol and receive a token in return (for example stETH, rETH, etc), which grants them a 1:1 claim to their staked tokens and automatically generates rewards.
Ethereum 2.0: Everything to Merge in BTC-ECHO Magazine (Print & Digital)
The BTC-ECHO magazine is the leading German-language magazine since 2014 on the topics of Bitcoin, blockchain, NFTs & cryptocurrencies.
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In return, DeFi protocols such as Lido Finance or Rocket Pool retain a small part of the staking rewards as a profit for their DeFi protocol.
Liquid staking protocols could also be beneficiaries of the Ethereum Merge. That’s because your profit margins could increase after the merge.
Currently, Ether Staking only earns block rewards for validating blocks on the beacon chain. After the merge, the stakers will be able to generate transaction fees and revenue from MEV. It is therefore expected that the ETH staking yield could increase from currently around 4 percent to 6 to 12 percent.
This, in turn, could ensure that the revenues of the liquid staking providers also increase, as they can tap higher profit margins.
At the moment, there are three liquid staking projects whose tokens are tradable: Lido Finance (LDO), Rocket Pool (RPL) and Stakewise (SWISE).
3. Ethereum Layer 2 Tokens
Another part of the Ethereum ecosystem that could be among the beneficiaries of the merge is the ETH Layer 2 sector. Layer 2 projects could benefit from the transition to Proof of stake, as it allows them to scale even better.
For example, upgrades such as the EIP-4844, which reduces transaction costs on layer 2 networks, can only be implemented on a Proof of Stake Ethereum network.
It is therefore likely that the adoption of ETH-L2s will continue to progress through the merge, because the number of users who can process transactions through it will be significantly increased. In addition, this makes it possible to develop new decentralized applications (dApps) that previously were not profitable enough due to the too high transaction fees.
Accordingly, one could follow the development of layer 2 blockchains, such as Optimism (OP), more closely. On the other hand, there are also decentralized applications on ETH-L2s, including Synthetix Network (SNX) or Uniswap (UNI), which could also benefit from a successful merge.
Ethereum 2.0: Everything to Merge in BTC-ECHO Magazine (Print & Digital)
The BTC-ECHO magazine is the leading German-language magazine since 2014 on the topics of Bitcoin, blockchain, NFTs & cryptocurrencies.
