Why Ethereum's Merge Was Delayed and Why It Won't Reduce Gas Fees Much - Ep.341

Tim Beiko, the Ethereum Foundation coordinator for core developers, discusses his recent estimation that Ethereum’s merge, where the network transitions from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, will be delayed until the second half of 2022. Show topics:
what the Ethereum merge is 
why an upcoming difficulty bomb could force developers to delay the merge
what shadow forks are and how they affect the decision to go forward with the merge
how network difficulty is used in Ethereum to keep a balance between the blockchain and miners
Tim’s (purposefully vague) timeline for the merge
how the merge could increase Ethereum’s throughput by 9% – and thus potentially reduce gas fees slightly
how the Ethereum Foundation plans to address gas fees and scaling issues post-merge
Announcing The Cryptopians Book Clubs!
On April 26th, I will be selling NFT tickets to five 90-minute virtual book clubs in which 22 people can discuss "The Cryptopians" with me and with each other — without worrying about spoilers! Two of the book clubs will also feature special guests. 
 
The sale will go live on Tuesday, April 26, at 1pm ET/10am PT,  and tickets will be $100 each. (The sale will be on Bitski, but the NFTs will not be visible until the sale goes live on the 26th): https://www.bitski.com/@laurashin/created
 
Here is the schedule: 
Monday May 2, at 8pm ET/5pm PT with Laura Shin
Tuesday, May 3, at a time TBD with guests Christoph Jentzsch, Lefteris Karapetsas, and Griff Green 
Thursday, May 5, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with Laura Shin
Monday, May 9, at 6pm CET/12pm ET/9am PT with guest Andrey Ternovskiy
Tuesday, May 10, at 9pm CET/3pm ET/12pm PT with Laura Shin
If you'd like to participate, be sure to mark your calendars for the sale time on April 26th. Hope to see you in one of the book clubs!
 
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021    
Coinchange: https://coinchange.io   
OnJuno: https://onjuno.com/ 
Galaxis: https://galaxis.xyz/
 
Episode Links
 
Tim Beiko
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimBeiko 
 
Related Content
Tim’s post on the merge FAQs:
https://github.com/timbeiko/eth-roadmap-faq#merge-timelines

Tim’s tweets from this week:

https://twitter.com/TimBeiko/status/1514423985517203458 
https://twitter.com/TimBeiko/status/1514010098145759232

Previous Unchained appearance discussing the merge and EIP 1559:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/ethereums-eip-1559-will-solve-some-problems-but-big-ones-will-remain/ 

Shadow fork threads
https://twitter.com/parithosh_j/status/1513129893235769346?s=20&t=w63Iw2RPkldNMnRS4PJdjA

https://twitter.com/vdWijden/status/1513540976438091779 

Unchained episode about how Ethereum 2.0 will work:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/ethereum-2-0-what-you-need-to-know/ 


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