The Merge was Ethereum’s September 2022 transition from proof-of-work mining to proof-of-stake validation. It joined Ethereum’s transaction-executing Mainnet with the Beacon Chain’s proof-of-stake consensus, ending Ethereum Mainnet mining. It sharply reduced the network’s estimated energy use, but it did not directly make transactions faster or cheaper.
What changed
Before The Merge, Ethereum Mainnet used proof of work to produce blocks, while the Beacon Chain ran separately to coordinate proof-of-stake validators. The Merge connected the existing execution layer to that consensus layer. Ethereum’s previous transaction history and account state continued; The Merge changed how new blocks reached consensus rather than starting a separate Ethereum with a blank ledger.
Ethereum.org estimates that the transition reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by about 99.95%. Mining ceased on Ethereum Mainnet, and validators took over block proposals and attestations under the proof-of-stake protocol.
What The Merge did not change
The Merge was not a capacity upgrade. It did not promise lower gas fees: fees still reflect demand for block space relative to available capacity. It also did not enable withdrawals of staked ETH at the moment of the transition; Shanghai/Capella enabled staking withdrawals in April 2023. Network scaling and staking withdrawals are separate changes with separate timelines.
ETH issuance, fees, and the “triple halving” claim
Moving away from mining lowered new ETH issuance. Ethereum.org’s historical estimate puts the reduction in total new issuance at roughly 88%, with the exact validator issuance changing as the amount of ETH staked changes. Separately, EIP-1559 burns Ethereum’s base transaction fee. ETH supply therefore depends on the balance between new validator issuance and fees burned: high burn can offset issuance, but The Merge alone does not guarantee that ETH is deflationary.
“Triple halving” is a community shorthand for the issuance reduction, not a protocol event equivalent to three Bitcoin halvings. It can obscure that Ethereum’s issuance and fee burn vary over time.
Social Media Sentiment
A pre-Merge r/ethereum discussion focused on whether switching consensus would reduce gas fees. Participants mostly corrected that expectation, while debating block timing and which later scaling changes might affect capacity. This is one historical forum thread, not a survey of all Ethereum users or a measure of current opinion. Read the Reddit discussion.
Last updated: 2026-10
Related Terms
See Also
- Does Ethereum TPS Include Layer 2 Transactions?
- Is Ethereum Staking Making the Network More Centralized?
- What Is Restaking — And Why EigenLayer Made It the Most Debated Idea in DeFi
- Swap crypto with ChangeNOW
Sources
- Ethereum.org — The Merge — Explains the transition, estimated energy reduction, and why The Merge was not designed to lower gas fees.
- Ethereum.org — How The Merge Impacted ETH Supply — Provides historical issuance estimates and explains how staking issuance and fee burn affect net supply.
- Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559 — Specifies the base-fee burn and explains why net ETH supply is not fixed by the fee mechanism.