Ethereum increases block creation speed after The Merge, but there are concerns about possible network centralization.
The Merge has been one of the biggest updates in the history of Ethereum, but also of the blockchain. The merger marked the First change to a blockchain's consensus mechanism and has had a positive impact on the network.
The shift to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, based on ETH staking, has improved the perception of entities on Ethereum, by abandoning the traditional mining mechanism, which is perceived as more aggressive with the environment and with 99% higher energy consumption.
On the other hand, The Merge gave rise to many myths and misconceptions, such as the implementation of Cheaper gas fees or faster transactions, something that was denied by the Ethereum development team.
However, The Merge has implemented some network performance improvements, such as a significant Increase in daily block creation and a substantial decrease in the average creation time or “block time”.
Following the successful implementation of The Merge on September 15th, The number of blocks created per day increased from 6.000 to 7.100, an increase of 18%.
In addition, the average “block time” – the time it takes for miners or validators to verify transactions on a network – is fell by more than 13% on Ethereum, according to YCharts data.
Ethereum's move to Proof-of-Stake and the fear of centralization
Recently, T-Systems MMS, the T-Mobile's technology subsidiary, the leading German telecommunications company, has announced its partnership with StakeWise to participate in the Ethereum liquid staking pool.
Thus, T-Systems will participate in the validation of Ethereum transactions, through the StakeWise staking pool.
Liquid staking pools are taking center stage in the crypto space as they allow retail users and entities to participate in the validation of Ethereum, without having to invest 32 ETH. Additionally, unlike traditional staking pools, liquid pools allow you to use stETH, the staked version of the token, to earn yields on DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, 1inch, or Aave.
In addition, T-Systems plans to actively participate in the governance of StakeWise, through the company's decentralized governance system.
The participation of large companies in the Ethereum staking It worries a part of the community, since The network may become centralized and more vulnerable to manipulation and censorship.. In fact, almost the 50% of Ethereum validator nodes are owned by two companies (Coinbase and Lido Finance).
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