Ethereum Merge FAQ and Common Misconceptions

Polygon Labs

September 9, 2022

Ethereum’s much-anticipated transition to the proof of stake (PoS) consensus, known as the Merge, is almost upon us. It’s a momentous event with broad-ranging implications for the greater Ethereum ecosystem. So we wanted to provide a definitive list of frequently asked questions (and answers) as well as address some of the common misconceptions, both of general and technical nature.

A: The Merge is a transition in how Ethereum’s decentralized network achieves consensus, from proof of work to proof of stake.

The transition to proof of stake will make Ethereum more energy-efficient, more secure, and lays the groundwork for future upgrades, like sharding.

A: The effect of the Merge on:
Using Polygon PoS: The Merge will have no effect on Polygon smart contracts already deployed on Ethereum.
Polygon Bridge: There are no modifications to the Polygon Bridge after the Merge. But deposit and withdrawal times will be longer as a consequence of Ethereum’s extended time to network finality.
Environmental impact: Polygon’s network emissions will reduce drastically because Ethereum’s energy efficiency will improve by 99%. Polygon’s relationship with Ethereum accounts for more than 95% of our own emissions.
Cost: The Merge will not increase network capacity. It is only a change in consensus. So it will not result in lower gas.
Speed: Proof of stake will not increase transaction speeds.
Security: The Merge will improve Ethereum’s security against coordinated attacks.

A: After the Merge, Ethereum’s energy consumption will shrink from 112 TWh/yr to 0.01 TWh/yr, reducing total energy consumption by ~99.95%.

A: Polygon’s roadmap is unaffected by the Merge.

A: Even when Ethereum begins to scale during “the surge” (Ethereum’s next phase) with upgrades like sharding, that will be good for Polygon, too—it will amplify the network’s ability to scale. Every improvement made to Ethereum, as a settlement layer, magnifies the power of Polygon.

A: No. Staked MATIC is not affected by the Merge.

False. The Merge is a change in consensus mechanism, not an expansion of network capacity. The Merge doesn’t fix expensive gas fees or boost Ethereum’s speed, so Polygon will continue to be essential for fast and cheap transactions.

Withdrawal of staked ETH will be available during the Shanghai Upgrade, the next major upgrade after the merge.

False. While the merge does pave the way for sharding, this future upgrade will not be enough to scale Ethereum. In fact, Polygon will benefit from it, and it will boost the performance of our scaling solutions.

To quote from ethereum.org: “The Ethereum ecosystem is firmly aligned that layer 2 scaling is the only way to solve the scalability trilemma while remaining decentralized and secure”.

No, you don’t need to do anything to prepare for the merge as an ETH or MATIC token holder.

No. You will not get an airdrop from the Ethereum Foundation. Beware of scammers tricking you into a malicious airdrop.

False. The merge is designed to transition to proof of stake with zero downtime.

Polygon

A: Polygon validators do not need to do anything specific to prepare for the Merge.

A: Out of an abundance of caution, during the merge, we WILL be pausing the following: the Polygon Wallet Suite, the Safe Bridge, and the Staking Platform. But we are NOT disabling smart contracts associated with those services. After the merge, all of the above will resume functioning normally. Learn more here.

A: dApps running on Polygon will not be impacted.

A: Polygon delegators and token holders do not need to do anything to prepare for the Merge.

A: Except for a longer withdrawal and deposit time on the polygon bridge, there will be no impact on Polygon's infrastructure suppliers.

Ethereum Network

A: After the Merge, all applications running on Ethereum should run exactly as pre-Merge, with the state and transaction history maintained.

A: The Merge comes with changes to: block structure, slot/block timing, opcode changes, sources of on-chain randomness, concept of safe head and finalized blocks. You can learn more here and make changes accordingly.

A: Ethereum validators need to complete the following steps before the switch:
Run the execution client, consensus client, and the validator client.
Make sure execution and consensus client are both synced using engine API
Set up fee recipient address to collect mining fees. (This should be done only after terminal total difficulty has been announced on Mainnet.)

A: Ethereum node operators need to complete the following steps before the switch:
Run the execution client and consensus client.
Make sure execution and consensus clients are both synced using engine API

A: For any dApps that have been pushed into production, you do not need to redeploy. If you are developing a dApp on a test network, be aware that the following popular test networks are being deprecated: Rinkeby, Ropsten, and Kovan.

Moving forward, you should use Sepolia and Goerli as your test networks. More information on test networks is available on the official documentation.

No. You don’t need to do anything to your Polygon dApp, to prepare for the merge. Having said that, there are slight changes you might want to know. You can learn more here

No. There won't be any network outages during the merge.

Even though you might not need to modify anything specifically to get ready for the merge, infrastructure providers like exchanges, on/off ramps, and RPC providers might have to stop offering services on Ethereum while they update their code. It may cause your dApp to experience some downtime. Learn more about the changes here.

Tune into our blog for the latest news from the Polygon ecosystem & let’s bring the world to Ethereum!