Breaking: USDC Announces Full Support To Ethereum POS Chain Post-Merge

Circle, the blockchain company which issues USDC, announced full support to the upcoming Ethereum Merge. The company said it was looking forward to the reduced energy consumption profile of the network. USDC’s support to The Merge comes ahead of the much anticipated event scheduled for September 2018. Circle said it fully and solely supports the Ethereum proof of stake (PoS) chain post-merge.

Support For ETH Merge

Earlier this week, the Ethereum network received strong endorsement in the form of support from Chainlink. The crypto company said it will only support the Proof of Stake consensus layer post-merge. It said it will not offer support to ETH hard forks. Circle, in a statement about USDC Ethereum Merge support, said,

“As Ethereum approaches “The Merge” event, we are excited about the future scaling opportunities it unlocks as well as the reduced energy consumption profile of the network. USDC is the largest dollar-backed stablecoin issued on Ethereum and, as the issuer of USDC, Circle intends to fully and solely support the Ethereum proof of stake (PoS) chain post-merge.”

Hurdles Before The Merge

The upcoming Merge will bring into effect a replacement of miners in the Proof of Work system with validators in Proof of Stake. With the possibility of a few hard forks of Ethereum post-merge, experts believe there could be severe issues. There is also a threat of ETH network halting if the mainnet merge comes across hurdles, they predict. Also, the future of Ethereum miners is unpredictable after Merge, with an option to shift to Ethereum Classic.

Meanwhile, the ETH price took a massive jump in the space of last month, likely in anticipation of The Merge. From trading at below $1,200 to a recent high of just over $1,800, there was 50% rise. As of writing , Ethereum price stands at $1,687.34, down 4.94% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. However, the price is still better than last week’s level with a relative rise by 3.63%.