Ethereum's make-or-break moment nears as crypto readies itself for the big Merge

The future of finance… aims to leave its past in the dust. The ethereum Merge — a years-in-the-making reimagining of the world's second-largest crypto — is set for mid-September, and crypto fans are HODLing their breath. The Merge is meant to move the chain's consensus mechanism (think: verification process) from “proof of work” (PoW: old, power-hungry) to “proof of stake” (PoS: new, efficient). It's a critical moment for the seven-year-old crypto, with real — ahem — stakes:

• Eth-ficient: PoS-powered ethereum is expected to use 99.95% less energy by having validators instead of miners add new blocks to the chain. Reminder: validators are people "staking" (aka: depositing and locking up) ether as collateral; miners = tons of energy-sucking computers.
• Dirt-eth: Right now, ethereum uses as much energy as the Netherlands and emits as much carbon as Singapore.
• Crypt-oh shucks: The Merge will not actually reduce transaction fees or speed up transactions.

Growing up = growing pains… Dragging a chain worth $202B into the future isn't like flipping a switch. Plenty could go wrong, from bugs to industry consolidation (aka: dreaded centralization). Merge fans argue that if ethereum sticks with the old PoW, it risks getting left behind by new chains on the block (like: solana), but not all of cryptoland's on board:

• Miner detail: In the new PoS future, ethereum miners (and their costly computer rigs) are no longer needed. One response: a proposed forked PoW ethereum chain living on after the merge (meet: ETHPOW).
• Mis-stake: Critics worry PoS is less censorship-resistant than PoW, and that validators might be pressured into censoring ethereum at the protocol level.