Google Searches for “Ethereum Merger” at an All-time High

In the past few weeks people worldwide have been curious about the Ethereum Merge prompting the search term to peak in popularity, according to Google Trends data. 

The search term “Ethereum Merge” is currently a 100 out of 100 on a Google Trends data chart. According to Google, a 100 is when the term is at its all-time high, all other numbers below that will represent the ratio of search terms compared to the all-time high number. The search term is up considerably to its March 6 score of 23 out of 100. 

Canada came in as the number one country googling this term, so Trends assigned the countries a value of 100 (again, that 100 representing the peak). In Canada, the term hit peak popularity from March 13 to 19. However, by March 26, the term dropped considerably, and is now at 39. 

Australia, Singapore, the U.S., and the U.K. round out the top five countries interested in this term. The U.S. received a 75 out of 100, with their most popular time for the search term being now. 

The U.K. is also at 100 now, meaning this time period is the peak for the search term there. However, this isn’t the first time the U.K. has been interested in the term. From December 19-25, 2021 they received a score of 96. They have also gone over the 80 mark, two more times in the last year. 

As for related search topics, Google Trends reports "Proof of Stake," "Ethereum merge date," and "ethereum 2.0 release date." This adds up, as all of these terms are very interconnected. 

The Merger

The Merge, is the next step in Ethereum 2.0, which is also known as Eth2 or “Serenity.” However, in January of this year, Ethereum came out and said they will no longer be referring to the upgrade as Ethereum 2.0. Instead they have elected for it to be referred to as the “consensus layer” with the original form labeled the “execution layer.” 

Nevertheless, Ethereum (ETH) is upgrading from Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0. The first phase of the upgrade was released in December 2020, but still has two more phases to go. The estimated date of completion is some time in 2023. 

The upgrades are aimed to improve the network’s scalability and security through several changes in the network’s infrastructure. The most notable change is going from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system called Beacon Chain. 

Under the current PoW system, ETH miners (computers running 24/7) with the most computing power validate the most transactions on the blockchain and earn its reward. The downfall to this system is the energy it uses to do so (computers running 24/7). 

This is where PoS comes in. The ETH validators will go from computers to validators who stake the most crypto. 

In addition, the new upgrade will solve or mitigate Ethereum’s well known scalability issues. Currently the system can only handle about 30 transactions per second. After the merge, that number will increase to 100,000. 

Author: Tyler Irvin

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