There are still 50 days until September 19th, but the crypto community is discussing whether developers will postpone the planned date for The Merge. A survey by Galois Capital, a crypto hedge fund, was published on Twitter on July 27. It indicated that more than 33% of respondents believe Ethereum could be split in half again.
After the announcement of the “penciled-in” date for the Merge, the value of Ethereum (ETH) as well as Ethereum classic rocketed in comparison to the U.S. Dollar. Superphiz, , the Ethereum developer and Beaconchain community director explained that although the “timeline” is not final, he shared a timeline showing that The Merge could be implemented by September 19. The Merge will end the transition from a Proof-of-work (PoW), to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS), consensus model.
The price of ethereum shot up almost immediately after the announcement. It had previously been hit hard by the bear market downturn. ETH gained 62.4% in the past 30 days against the U.S. Dollar. With the date approaching, there is less hype. People are now asking if Ethereum developers will delay The Merge. The topic of delaying The Merge was a hot topic this weekend on social media. One wrote
Everyone is too focused on September’s deadline for The Merge and thinks everything must be done within the next few weeks. What if the Ethereum Foundation delays it yet again?
Ethereum Supporter: It’s a Low Probability Bear Scenario If The Merge Is Delayed
Multiple Twitter threads have been discussing The Merge’s possible delay and various theoretical scenarios. Chris, a retired degen, posted a thread showing the positives of The Merge if it’s implemented without any problems.
Chris insists the Merge would bring down the blockchain network’s energy consumption by 99.95%. It will also make Ethereum deflationary, and institutional investors will flock towards the project. Chris also noted that a bear scenario might occur if The Merge was delayed again.
Chris stated that a delay in the merge would be a low-probability bear scenario. A delay is not likely because the Devs have enough confidence to choose a date. Some testnets have yet to migrate from PoW to PoS. Namely Ethereum’s Goelri, and Sepolia.
Galois Capital Survey Sparks Chain Split and ETH2 Delay Discussions
Apart from the many Twitter discussions about The Merge being delayed and the numerous Twitter conversations about it, Galois Capital has shared a survey asking whether people believe Ethereum will split into two different chains once The Merge is implemented. The survey respondents guessed that The Merge would go smoothly, while 33.1% believed the chain could break. It would have a PoW token and a PoS token if it split, even though ETH is already available.
The Ethereum Classic network was created in 2016 to fix the DAO hack. The Galois Capital survey showed that 51.8% believe ETH miners can transition to ETC.
The Galois Capital survey also inquired whether there was a chance that stablecoin company Tether would back a PoW token which splits from the PoS Ethereum network. Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino stated Sunday that Tether will support ETH2.
It doesn’t matter what PoW/PoS I/we choose. Stablecoins must act responsibly and prevent disruption for users. It’s especially delicate for [decentralized financing]
