Secret Messages In Last PoW And First PoS Blocks During Ethereum Merge

Ethereum Merge has successfully completed on September 15 at 06:42:42 UTC at block height 15537394. The last proof-of-work (PoW) and first proof-of-stake (PoS) blocks have secret messages for the community by VanityBlocks and HashKey Capital.

Block Producers Drop Secret Messages in Last PoW and First PoS Transactions

The crypto community saw the most anticipated and complex upgrade in the history of crypto. Ethereum Mainnet (execution layer) has finally merged with the Beacon Chain (consensus layer) at block height 15537394 on September 15 at 06:42:42. Interestingly, this marks the transition of Ethereum from PoW to PoS, which reduces Ethereum’s energy consumption by around 99.95%.

The last PoW block was produced by F2Pool and has only 1 transaction and 1 contract internal transaction. The message in the transaction by VanityBlocks has a quote by American ethnobotanist and mystic Terence McKenna:

“Make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick.”

In fact, the quote relates to the hard work of Ethereum developers, researchers, coordinators, clients, and others involved with the Merge. Moreover, continuous coding, upgrades, testing, and fixing for many years have made Ethereum successfully transition from PoW to PoS.

In addition, HashKey Capital has also left a message in a transaction on the first PoS block.

“Powering the Next Wave of Blockchain Innovation.”

Also, the first PoS block has a reward of 45.03 ETH, which is worth over $72,000. The block has 80 transactions and 1 contract internal transaction. However, the subsequent blocks have significantly low rewards.

The Merge is a paradigm shift in the Ethereum ecosystem. With the Merge now complete, developers can focus on the Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge phases in the Ethereum Roadmap. It will further improve the scalability, efficiency, speed, and security of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a tweet congratulated the community after the successful Ethereum Merge.

“And we finalized! Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.”

Ethereum (ETH) Price Deflationary Post-Merge

The circulating Ethereum (ETH) supply will decline due to the EIP-1559 burning mechanism reducing the new ETH issuance. As per recent data, almost 200 ETH supply has been removed from the circulation supply after the Merge.

The ETH price has decreased after the Merge. At the time of writing, the ETH price is trading 2% down at $1,579. Also, the market cap has plummeted 2% to $193.71 billion.