Ethereum vs. Ethereum Classic: What's their difference and relation to the Merge?

In recent months, the ethereum ecosystem has been among investors' most popular topics of conversation. The upcoming merge in September has caused quite a stir, with analysts taking a close look at its repercussions on ETH to give investors an idea of what to expect.

Timeline of Ethereum-classic, Ethereum

The much-awaited Ethereum Merge alludes to the network's move to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus from its current proof-of-work. The event is slated to take place in two phases starting in September.

After the DXY index rebounded off the support at 104, the crypto market entered a correction phase. In the past few days, Ethereum experienced an uptrend after touching $1,523 on August 20 and rallied today as new updates on the Merge were announced.

The traditional finance sector will dip its toes into decentralized finance (DeFi) in the next few months, predicts Ki Young Ju, chief executive of on-chain insights platform CryptoQuant. Young Ju tells his 304,800 Twitter followers that stablecoins are leading the way in terms of institutional adoption. As evidence, he points to U.S.

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has introduced a new liquid staking ethereum derivative token ahead of Ethereum's proof-of-stake (PoS) upgrade. The new ERC20 utility token is called coinbase wrapped ethereum, or CBETH, and it will allow people to stake their ether in a non-custodial fashion or trade the tokens on the open market.

Ethereum Classic price is constantly flashing buy signals despite the recent drop and hence a significant buying pressure raised the price upwards. Interestingly, while a pullback was presumed, the price seems to be poised to slice the bearish set-up.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently tweeted that cryptocurrency payments are superior because of censorship resistance and convenience. This change has given a significant boost to international businesses, charities, and payments within countries, he added.

On Thursday (August 25), Cumberland, which is “a specialized cryptoasset trading company within DRW, a diversified principal trading firm”, commented on the crypto market in general, and in particular about the potential ramifications of Ethereum's upcoming “Merge” upgrade, which marks the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).

With the highly-anticipated Ethereum Merge fast approaching, the team behind layer 2 scaling solution Polygon has asserted that Ethereum's upcoming transition to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism is good news and will not limit Polygon's capabilities.  According to Polygon's developers, Ethereum's migration to PoS will make the protocol less energy-intensive and more environmentally friendly.

The date for Ethereum's transition from a Proof-of-work based consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake mechanism is inching closer. The change is being done to lower the energy consumption, and carbon footprint produced by the traditional PoW mechanism. The much-anticipated upgrade of the Ethereum network has intrigued investors ever since the idea was first disclosed.

After the announcement of the Ethereum Merger, many believe the network is closer to addressing the major issues related to speed and scalability. Hence, the gas fees which had blown the minds earlier may be settled at decent levels.