After the Merge: Ethereum’s new perspectives and risks On Thursday, September 15, Ethereum successfully merged its execution and consensus layers, becoming a Proof-of-Stake blockchain. The Merge may have been one of the most impressive endeavours in the history of open-source software: changing one of the key elements of a blockchain – its consensus – while it was running, was no small issue. It required a lengthy planning, masterful coordination of dozens of developer teams and researchers… but it all went as good as one could have imagined, earning Ethereum and its developers even more of the industry’s respect.