What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin.

What is proof of stake?

Proof-of-stake protocols are a class of consensus mechanisms for blockchains that work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of holdings in the associated cryptocurrency. This is done to avoid the computational cost of proof-of-work schemes.

What is the merge?

The Merge refers to the original Ethereum Mainnet merging with a separate proof-of-stake blockchain called the Beacon Chain, now existing as one chain. The Merge reduced Ethereum's energy consumption by ~99.95%.

Methodology

in this dashboard we will look at how the swap activity, block creation, and gas fees on Ethereum has changed since the merge. The data for this dashboard will come from the ethereum.core tables of flipside crypto.

Sections

1. Network gas fees
2. Netorwork block creation
3. DEX activity

Network gas fees

Observations

• Directly when the merge happened the gas fee on Ethereum increased from the day leading up to the merge
• Since the merge that average tx fee and gas fee on Ethereum has been slightly lower than before the merge

Netorwork block creation

Observations

• Since the merge there has been 3x the number of block creators per day than before the merge
• there has been a small decrease in the number of transactions per block since the merge
• The top 3 validators have created over 50% of all blocks created by large validators
• Most hours 2 Validators Created over 50% of all blocks
• the largest group of block creators on Ethereum are cretors that have made between 1,000 and 10,000 blocks

DEX activity

Observations

• There has been a decrease in the value of swaps and all of the top 5 DEX platforms on Ethereum since the merge
• There was a spike in swap Ethereum dex activity leading up to the merge
• Since the beginning of August the has been a slight increase in the daily number of DEX swaps overtime

Conclusion

• Network gas fees
  • Directly when the merge happened the gas fee on Ethereum increased from the day leading up to the merge
  • Since the merge that average tx fee and gas fee on Ethereum has been slightly lower than before the merge
• Netorwork block creation
  • Since the merge there has been 3x the number of block creators per day than before the merge
  • there has been a small decrease in the number of transactions per block since the merge
  • The top 3 validators have created over 50% of all blocks created by large validators
  • Most hours 2 Validators Created over 50% of all blocks
  • the largest group of block creators on Ethereum are cretors that have made between 1,000 and 10,000 blocks
• DEX activity
  • There has been a decrease in the value of swaps and all of the top 5 DEX platforms on Ethereum since the merge
  • There was a spike in swap Ethereum dex activity leading up to the merge
  • Since the beginning of August the has been a slight increase in the daily number of DEX swaps overtime