These misconceptions and their refutations have been articulated by representatives of the Etherium team and can be found on the project's official website. Accordingly, there are no erroneous versions of what is happening with the network, and further explanations correspond to the developers' position as of August 2022.


Nine myths are particularly prevalent in the cryptocurrency community. Here they are – along with the correct information.

Etherium’s transition to PoS to take place on 19 September

Tonight, the so-called merger – that is, the merger of the PoW and PoS networks of Etherium – took place on the Goerli test network. The upgrade was successful, with this network being the last testnet of the respective blockchain. Consequently, the next big step is the migration to Proof-of-Stake of the core Etherium network.

The timetable for the update of Etherium from the developers of the project

When will it happen? The developers of Ethereum shared a tentative schedule in mid-July. It indicated that the final merger should be expected on September 19. However, this is an approximate date. Moreover, as it became known today, the update will take place tentatively on September 15.


For analogy, recall today's update on the Goerli test network, which was promised between August 6 and 12. However, it took place on the 11th. And so the update of the mainnet will be approximately the same situation.


To launch a node on the network, you need to stack 32 ETH

There are two varieties of nodes in the Etherium network: the first offer blocks to create and the second do not.


To recap, a node is a node within a network that validates what is happening in the blockchain and can, among other things, store the entire history of transactions in a particular network. Nodes are the backbone of security. The more nodes there are, the more decentralised a particular network is.


So, the offering blocks of nodes represent only a small fraction of all the nodes in the Etherium network. In general, this includes the mining nodes in the PoW-based network and the validator nodes in the PoS blockchain, with each category doing a specific job. In the case of PoW, we are talking about mining with video cards, while validation requires zastakaniye ethers. Both activities are aimed at being able to offer the next block in the network and be rewarded for doing so.

Ethereum developers

The other category of nodes do not offer blocks and are not involved in the economic component of the blockchain. They do, however, ensure its security by listening to new blocks and validating them according to consensus rules within the network. If a block proves to be invalid for any reason, a node will stop interacting with it and distribute it to other nodes in the network.


To run such a node on an Etherium PoS network will require a computer with medium specs, installed software, a stable internet connection and 1-2 TB of free memory.

The presence of 32 ETH in the stacking is required for owners of the first category of nodes, who will participate in the block creation process and receive rewards. However, thanks to Lido-like pools, you can earn ETH with any amount of cryptocurrency. However, you will have to pay a fee.


The merger will lower the cost of gas

The cost of gas determines the level of commissions on the Etherium network. When a large number of users claim a blockchain space and conduct a transaction, they raise the price of gas in order to increase the priority of their own transaction. Consequently, during such periods, it becomes expensive for everyone to conduct transactions. When the demand for network services falls, the price of transfers goes down with it.


For illustrative purposes, here is a table of the cost of conducting a transaction on the Etherium network today. A quick transfer is estimated to cost 10 gwei. With this in mind, a quick ETH transfer will cost the equivalent of 40 cents, while exchanging the cryptocurrency on the Uniswap decentralized exchange will cost $3.49.


Commissions for transactions on the Etherium network on August 11, 2022

On the scale of the Etherium network, that’s not much, because once upon a time – when the blockchain was under incredible strain – commissions were.

Commissions for transactions on the Etherium network 6 September 2021

Given what’s going on, some users are expecting further fee reductions once Etherium transitions to PoS – but that’s not going to happen. The fact is that Proof of Ownership is a consensus algorithm, meaning that it determines how all nodes in the network will reach agreement on the actual state of the distributed blockchain.

It has no effect on the blockchain’s position and, therefore, on the level of commissions. This means that the fee situation in Eth after the update will be exactly the same as it is now. In addition, it will continue to be able to grow to unbelievable heights.

However, the commissions will decrease with the development of second level solutions such as rollups. Finally, they will be significantly affected by the already familiar sharding, which is planned to be implemented after the PoS transition.

Transactions will go faster after the PoS transition

On the PoW network of Etherium, the average estimated block creation time is 13.3 seconds, while on the PoS chain of the Beacon Chain the figure is 12 seconds. It is during this interval that the miner or validator respectively has the opportunity to offer a new block.

All in all, it is obvious that a 10% reduction in block time will not be particularly noticeable to users. Therefore, transactions will not become much faster either.

Bitcoin and Etherium


For further theory, let's explain how blocks are formed on the Ethereum PoS network. In it, blocks are assembled into epochs that take 6.4 minutes to form and contain 32 chances to create a block every 12 seconds.

Once an epoch ends, validators validate it - and if that happens, it will be finalised in the next epoch. Theoretically cancelling finalised transactions is economically disadvantageous, as it would end up burning more than a third of the ETH deposited with the validator.


ETH can be withdrawn immediately after the merger

The ethers in the Beacon Chain deposit contract will still be in the stack after the merger, and there will be no way to withdraw them.

Beacon Chain blockchain observer

With that said, withdrawals are scheduled after the so-called “Shanghai” update – the next major update to the Etherium network after the merger. As the developers point out, ETH issued due to stacking in the Beacon Chain will remain locked and illiquid for at least 6-12 months after the merger.

Validators will not be able to receive any reward after the update

However, locking the staking rewards does not mean that validators will not receive anything at all after the transition of Ethereum to PoS. They will be able to receive rewards in the form of transaction fees and so-called MEV revenue that was earned during the block offer.

Etherium miner

On a separate note, the 32 ETH in stacking will be blocked until the Shanghai update, which means for at least the next six months.

Stackers will withdraw all coins as soon as the withdrawals are activated

Some cryptocurrency enthusiasts fear that once steakers get the option to withdraw coins, they will immediately do so and sell the coins at the market price, which will negatively affect the ETH exchange rate. Still, ETH steakers have been available since December 1, 2020, when ethers were valued at hundreds of dollars. On top of that, steakers have earned quite a few coins during that time, so they will have a desire to sell them, right?

No. Even if many validators suddenly want to get rid of cryptocurrency, the network won’t allow everyone to do so at the same time. According to the rules of the PoS blockchain, only six validators can withdraw their coins and stop benefiting the network within an epoch, that is, in 6.4 minutes. This translates into a maximum of 1,350 withdrawals per day – or 43,200 ETH per day respectively.

At the same time, there are almost 14 million ETH in stacking today. Consequently, it is unlikely that all of the validators will fail.

The total amount of ethers in the stacking on Beacon Chain

In addition, it is important to understand that the yield of stacking is a dynamic indicator. The more validators refuse to confirm and offer new blocks, the more profitable this activity will be. And that, in turn, will attract new shakers.


For reference: today the annual yield of ETH stacking is approximately 4.2 percent. This is normal for popular PoS networks.


ETH Stacking Yield as of today

Staking’s annual yield is set to triple

Some users are expecting a serious increase in the aforementioned staking yield after the merger. They speculate that the reward that video card miners now receive will supposedly now go to steking valedictorians.


This is not the case. Overall, the issuance of new ETH after the transition to PoS will be reduced by around 90 per cent compared to current rates, meaning that the issuance of ethers will be much lower.


Cryptocurrency miners

However, earning more will indeed be possible. The fact is that, as of June 2022, about 10 percent of the total fees paid by users went to miners, while the rest of the coins are burned.

If the 10 percent is applied to what is happening on the Etherium PoS network now, experts expect the yield from fees on validators to increase to around 7 percent per year. Taking the current 4.2 percent into account, this yields an increase of around 66 percent.

The merger requires a blockchain disconnect

The long preparations for the merger were driven, in part, by the developers’ desire to make the process go as smoothly as possible. As a result, the transition to PoS will happen without any downtime of the main network.

The developers compare this procedure to replacing the engine on a rocket while it is in flight. In general, the merger will take place due to the change in TTD or final total, i.e. the total capacity of miners on the network.

Cryptocurrency investors

Once the relevant criterion is met, blocks in the network will simply stop being created based on Proof-of-Work and switch to Proof-of-Stake.