Analyst says The Merge is the “most bullish catalyst” for the Ethereum network, sees ETH reaching $100K

• An Ethereum educator has shared his insights on the myriad of effects following the upcoming Ethereum Merge.
• The event, he says, is the culmination of the network and will likely propel it to $100K in a decade.

Ethereum (ETH) Mainnet is expected to dock onto the Beacon Chain sometime this quarter, an event known as The Merge. The Altcoin Daily hosted Anthony Sassano, an independent Ethereum educator and host of YouTube’s “The Daily Gwei”, to discuss the effects of the much-anticipated upgrade.

According to Sassano, The Merge will present a number of first-order effects. For one, the number of ETH tokens issued per block will be cut by 80-90 percent. This is similar to how Bitcoin miner incentives are slashed by half every leap year. 

Secondly, EIP-1559 will be incorporated into the new proof-of-stake (PoS)  ecosystem. This upgrade currently burns a portion of users’ transaction fees and directs the rest to miners. Stakers and validators will now replace miners with the implementation of PoS. Combined, these two happenings contribute what is known as the Ethereum triple halving. Their effect is negative issuance, and resultantly a deflationary ecosystem.

Effects of the Merge for Ethereum

Additionally, moving to PoS will do away with the negative narrative associated with PoW blockchains. Ethereum will reduce energy consumption by 99.98 percent. This is bound to increase its institutional attractiveness since such investors tend to lean towards eco-friendly modes of operation.

Furthermore, stakers’ yields will double following the execution of PoS. Sassano says this is the reason behind the increase in the number of stakers in ETH 2.0. Currently, the Beacon chain has over 10 million (over $30B) ETH staked and over 300,000 validators.

Second order effects include positive press, especially on reduction in energy intake. Another is increased security of the network following an increase in the number of stakers. Most importantly, developers will be free to work on other Ethereum upgrades including the upcoming shards for scalability.

Further notes

Of note, Sassano says that a reduction in transaction fees is a misconception. Fees will reduce after the introduction of sharding, he says, something that will be particularly noticeable on layer-two scaling solutions. Additionally, staked ETH will be unlocked 6 months after The Merge, and even then, it will be released in portions. He urges users to look into Ethereum’s official website to reduce misinformation regarding the move to PoS.

Finally, Sassano says The Merge is the “most bullish catalyst” for the Ethereum network. Potential downsides include slow upgrade implementation, high fees, and harsh regulation. However, the Ethereum enthusiast still predicts $100K ETH in the next 5-10 years, with Ethereum being a significant world financial infrastructure.

At press time, ETH was exchanging hands at $3,055, having dropped 5.9 percent in the past day.