Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake—known as The Merge—marked a pivotal milestone in blockchain history. Completed on September 15, 2022, this upgrade laid the foundation for a more sustainable, secure, and scalable network. But The Merge was just the beginning. Ethereum’s development team has charted a comprehensive long-term vision known as the Ethereum roadmap, which outlines a series of upgrades designed to enhance scalability, decentralization, and security.
In this guide, we’ll explore the technical details behind Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake, analyze the success of The Merge, and dive deep into the future phases of Ethereum’s evolution: The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge. Along the way, we’ll uncover key innovations like Single-Slot Finality, Danksharding, Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS), and Verkle Trees—all critical components in Ethereum’s journey toward mass adoption.
Understanding Ethereum’s Core Upgrades
Ethereum’s transformation is not a single event but a multi-phase journey. Each phase targets specific limitations of the current system, aiming to make Ethereum faster, cheaper, and more resilient. The roadmap—popularly referred to as Ethereum 2.0—has evolved over time and now consists of six major stages:
- The Merge: Transition to proof-of-stake.
- The Surge: Scaling via data sharding.
- The Scourge: Mitigating MEV centralization.
- The Verge: Enabling stateless clients.
- The Purge: Simplifying protocol complexity.
- The Splurge: Miscellaneous improvements.
These upgrades are being developed in parallel, with overlapping timelines and interdependencies.
👉 Discover how Ethereum’s evolution impacts staking rewards and network security.
The Beacon Chain: Foundation of Proof-of-Stake
Launched in December 2020, the Beacon Chain was Ethereum’s standalone proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain that ran alongside the original proof-of-work (PoW) chain before The Merge. Its primary role was to coordinate validators, manage staking deposits, and finalize consensus without processing user transactions.
Validators on the Beacon Chain are required to stake 32 ETH to participate. They perform three main duties:
- Propose new blocks.
- Attest to block validity.
- Participate in sync committees for light client support.
Time on the Beacon Chain is divided into epochs (6.4 minutes) and slots (12 seconds). Each slot has one designated block proposer chosen at random based on stake weight. Validators are grouped into beacon committees, ensuring efficient aggregation of attestations and reducing network overhead.
This modular design allowed developers to test PoS mechanics extensively before merging it with the execution layer—minimizing risk during the live transition.
How Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake Works
Ethereum uses a hybrid consensus protocol called Gasper, which combines:
- Casper FFG for finality.
- LMD GHOST for fork choice.
Finality occurs when two consecutive checkpoints receive votes from two-thirds of staked ETH. Once finalized, reverting a block would require malicious actors to lose at least one-third of total staked ETH—a cost currently exceeding **$6.8 billion** at $1,300 per ETH.
Validators earn rewards proportional to their participation, but penalties apply for downtime or malicious behavior (slashing). This economic model ensures strong finality guarantees while discouraging attacks.
Notably, Ethereum favors liveness over safety, meaning the chain continues producing blocks even if finality is temporarily delayed—unlike strict BFT systems like Tendermint that halt under stress.
The Merge: Execution and Impact
The Merge was executed when Ethereum reached a pre-defined Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD)—a cryptographic threshold marking the end of PoW mining. At block #15537393 (~2:43 AM EST), mining ceased, and PoS validators took over block production.
Key changes post-Merge:
- Block time stabilized at 12 seconds.
- Energy consumption dropped by ~99.9%.
- Gross ETH issuance fell by ~90%, making net issuance potentially deflationary due to EIP-1559 fee burns.
Despite concerns about disruption, The Merge proceeded smoothly:
- Validator participation remained above 96%.
- Finality was achieved within minutes.
- No major client failures occurred.
However, new challenges emerged—particularly around transaction censorship due to regulatory pressure on services like Tornado Cash.
Addressing Censorship in a Post-Merge World
Following U.S. sanctions on Tornado Cash, some validators began excluding transactions linked to sanctioned addresses. While this reflects legal compliance rather than systemic censorship, it raised concerns about Ethereum’s neutrality.
Most censorship stems from centralized relays used in MEV-Boost, where builders filter transactions before submitting blocks. However, solutions are emerging:
- Non-censoring relays (e.g., BloXroute, Manifold).
- Fallback mechanisms allowing validators to build local blocks if external bids are too low.
- Future upgrades like PBS with inclusion lists to enforce transaction inclusion.
Importantly, as long as some validators remain uncensored, transactions will eventually be included—albeit with increased latency (weak censorship).
👉 Learn how decentralized networks maintain integrity under regulatory pressure.
What Lies Ahead: Ethereum’s Future Roadmap
The Second Half of The Merge
While PoS is live, several enhancements remain:
- Shanghai Upgrade (EIP-4895): Enables withdrawal of staked ETH and rewards (~Q1 2023).
- Distributed Validator Technology (DVT): Improves fault tolerance using threshold signatures.
- Single Secret Leader Elections (SSLE): Hides proposer identities until block submission to prevent DDoS attacks.
- Single-Slot Finality (SSF): Aims to finalize blocks in one slot (~12 seconds), up from current 6–13 minutes.
SSF requires advances in BLS signature aggregation and may take years to implement—but it promises vastly improved user experience and security.
The Surge: Scaling Through Data Availability
Rather than scaling execution on Layer 1, Ethereum now focuses on making data availability cheap and abundant for Layer 2 rollups.
Two main types of rollups:
- Optimistic Rollups (ORUs): Assume validity unless challenged.
- ZK-Rollups (ZKRs): Use cryptographic proofs for instant verification.
Current rollups post data via expensive calldata. To solve this, Ethereum is introducing:
- Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844): Adds “blob-carrying transactions” (~125 KB each) with separate pricing.
- Targets 8 blobs/block, increasing rollup throughput by 10x.
- Full Danksharding will later shard data across nodes using data availability sampling.
This approach could enable Ethereum to handle over 100,000 TPS when combined with advanced L2s.
The Scourge: Taming MEV Centralization
Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)—profits from reordering transactions—has become a centralizing force. To address this:
- Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) outsources block construction to specialized builders.
- Validators simply pick the highest-paying block header.
- MEV-Boost enables PBS today; future versions will embed it in-protocol.
To preserve fairness:
- Proposals include censorship-resistance lists (crLists).
- Designs explore MEV smoothing or burning MEV like EIP-1559 fees.
- Long-term goal: decentralize builders through distributed systems.
PBS reduces validator hardware requirements and redistributes MEV value—keeping staking accessible.
The Verge: Stateless Clients and Verkle Trees
Running a full node requires storing ever-growing state data (~hundreds of GB). To reduce this burden:
- Replace Merkle-Patricia Trees with Verkle Trees, enabling compact proofs.
- Validators verify blocks using small cryptographic witnesses instead of full state.
- Future integration of zk-SNARKs will further compress verification.
This shift enables weak statelessness, where only block builders store full state—dramatically lowering entry barriers for node operators.
The Purge: Cleaning Up Technical Debt
Ethereum aims to simplify its protocol by removing obsolete data:
- EIP-4444: Nodes no longer serve blocks older than one year.
- New nodes sync from recent checkpoints instead of genesis.
- Historical data remains available via external providers (e.g., Etherscan, The Graph).
Additionally:
- State expiry: Inactive accounts moved to cold storage after inactivity.
- Reduces bloat from dust accounts and unused contracts.
These changes improve client performance without compromising security.
The Splurge: Final Touches
Miscellaneous but impactful upgrades include:
- Account Abstraction (EIP-4337): Smart contract wallets replace EOAs, enabling features like social recovery, gas sponsorship, and multi-signature security.
- Endgame EIP-1559: Multi-dimensional fee markets price resources (calldata, computation) independently for better efficiency.
- Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs): Provide unbiasable randomness using specialized ASICs, preventing manipulation of validator selection.
These upgrades refine usability, security, and economic design—bringing Ethereum closer to its endgame vision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Merge?
The Merge refers to Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in September 2022. It replaced energy-intensive mining with staking, reducing emissions by ~99.9% and improving security through economic finality.
Will ETH become deflationary?
Yes—under certain conditions. With EIP-1559 burning base fees and reduced issuance post-Merge, ETH can become deflationary during periods of high network usage. Sustained demand could lead to long-term supply contraction.
What are blob transactions?
Blob transactions (introduced via EIP-4844) carry large amounts of temporary data for rollups. They’re cheaper than calldata and expire after ~1 month, improving L2 scalability without bloating node storage.
How does PBS reduce centralization?
Proposer-Builder Separation allows regular validators to outsource complex block-building tasks to specialized entities. This levels the playing field by reducing hardware requirements while preserving decentralization at the consensus layer.
What is Single-Slot Finality?
Single-Slot Finality (SSF) aims to finalize blocks within one 12-second slot instead of the current 64–95 slots (~6–13 minutes). It enhances user experience and security but depends on advances in signature aggregation technology.
When can I withdraw staked ETH?
Staked ETH withdrawals were enabled in early 2023 via the Shanghai upgrade. Validators can now exit and claim both principal and accumulated rewards after an orderly queue process.
Conclusion
Ethereum’s journey is far from over. While The Merge was a historic achievement, it was only the first step toward a scalable, secure, and sustainable platform. With upcoming upgrades like Danksharding, PBS, Verkle Trees, and account abstraction, Ethereum is evolving into a high-performance settlement layer capable of supporting global decentralized applications.
Core keywords driving this evolution include:
Ethereum roadmap, proof-of-stake, The Merge, sharding, MEV, rollups, finality, and scalability.
As development continues across multiple fronts—from consensus improvements to UX enhancements—Ethereum remains on track to fulfill its original promise: a trustless, permissionless world computer accessible to all.
👉 Stay ahead of Ethereum’s next breakthroughs—explore staking and DeFi opportunities today.