Crypto history
2022: Ethereum replaces mining with proof of stake
The Merge changed block production while preserving application state and the existing ETH asset.
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People & projects
The transition
Ethereum completed the Merge on 15 September 2022. The existing execution system joined the Beacon Chain's proof-of-stake consensus, replacing proof-of-work block production. Applications and balances continued on the upgraded network.
The Foundation's announcement described the paired execution and consensus clients and the terminal-total-difficulty trigger. It also made clear that ordinary ETH holders did not need to exchange their coins for a replacement token. Requests to send funds to obtain upgraded ETH were not a requirement of the transition.
The consequences and the limits
Validators rather than miners became responsible for proposing and attesting to blocks. Staking concentration, client diversity and the distribution of block-building infrastructure became central to evaluating the network's operation. The upgrade did not by itself remove smart-contract bugs, custodians or centralised frontends.
Staking withdrawals were also a separate development. They arrived with Shapella in 2023, rather than being enabled by the Merge itself. Consensus explains what the network agrees on, while layer 2 systems explain a different approach to increasing execution capacity.