Ethereum Foundation on Wednesday clarified that the network’s upcoming proof-of-stake transitory upgrade —the “Merge” —will not reduce gas fees.
In a blog post, the team addressed the misconception, stating that, “Merge is a change of consensus mechanism, not an expansion of network capacity, and will not result in lower gas fees.”
Ethereum Merge is the upgrade from proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
The statement added, “Gas fees are a product of network demand, relative to the capacity of the network. The Merge deprecates the use of proof-of-work, transitioning to proof-of-stake for consensus, but does not significantly change any parameters that directly influence network capacity or throughput.”
Last week, Ethereum’s testnet Goerli transitioned to PoS, indicating completion of the third and final step before Ethereum’s existing PoW is completely done away with.
The much anticipated Merge is expected to make the Ethereum blockchain faster, more scalable, and much more energy efficient.
The Ethereum Foundation also addressed that transitioning to Beacon Chain proof-of-stake system will eliminate the need for energy-intensive mining.
On the website, the team stated that the Merge “will reduce the network’s energy consumption by an estimated 99.5%”.