Cryptoverse: Electric ether leaps on verge of Merge

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

After years of delays, the "Merge" seems all but certain to take place in September, with the cryptography underlying the blockchain undergoing a radical shift to a system where the creation of new ether tokens becomes far less energy-intensive. «It's an exciting time for the ethereum ecosystem,» said Omar Syed, co-founder of smart contract platform Shardeum. «I think there will be drama surrounding the Merge, but I don't think there will be any technical hiccups.» Investors seem to agree, with ether outstripping big brother bitcoin.

Did you Know?

Meta's digital wallet service Novi will no longer be available for use after September 1. The Facebook parent, which is shutting down its Novi pilot project less than a year after starting it, ‘strongly advised’ users to withdraw their money from Novi.

Ether has seen six consecutive weeks of gains, pushing it up from a 1-1/2-year low of $880 in mid-June to levels closing in on $2,000, even though it's way off its November 2021 peak of $4,868.79. Bitcoin has paled in comparison, rebounding 37% from its June low to $24,116. Ether is gnawing away at behemoth bitcoin's market share: it now accounts for nearly a fifth — 19.7% — of the total crypto market capitalization of $1.14 trillion, up from less than 14.9% two months ago, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin's share has dropped to 40.2% from 44.9% in the same period. «Crypto is still very tightly coupled, I think when the Merge successfully completes it could drive up the price of bitcoin as well,» said Alex Miller, CEO of Hiro, which builds developer tools to create applications for bitcoin. If ethereum's creators succeed, as is largely expected, it could be a game-changer for the blockchain,