The Ethereum merger is expected to be one of the most important events in the crypto community. It now appears that the news of the merger has attracted other tech giants who want to be a part of this big event.
As a sign of support for the upcoming Ethereum Merge, Google is celebrating the time left until the upgrade with a new countdown timer, adding to the excitement of the community.
Typing any variant of "Ethereum Merge" or "Merge" into the search engine shows a countdown bar, with the estimated time left until merging based on current difficulty, hash rate, and merging difficulty.
On the side is a cartoon of two happy pandas running toward each other with outstretched hands, which are supposed to get closer as the merge date approaches.
Ethereum Merge Countdown Appears on Google
a search for “Ethereum merging” for some English users of the popular search engine shows a countdown as the first result that reveals the time remaining for the merging process, the level of difficulty reached, the current ETH mining hash rate, and the difficulty level at which the merging will take place.
In fact, the Ethereum Merge is a very significant event, not only for the second largest cryptocurrency in the world but also for the entire crypto industry.
Google has long been interested in technological developments related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, so it is not at all surprising that it has decided to show those who search “Ethereum merge” in the English language a countdown that reveals an estimate of the time until it happens.
There is no exact date planned for the merger, but there is a specific level of difficulty: P58,750,000. This level can be reached before or after September 15th depending on how much ETH miners are using the hash rate in the meantime.
The more miners use hash rate to mine ETH these days, the sooner that difficulty level will be reached. On the other hand, if they were to reduce the hash rate, the upgrade might be reached a little later.
The fact is that after the Merge it will no longer be possible to mine ETH, so Ethereum miners will have to either shut down their machines or move them to other similar cryptocurrencies still based on PoW, such as Ethereum Classic.
It should be noted that Ethereum’s hash rate has remained essentially stable over the past few months, but as of 5 September, it appears to be declining slightly.
This small decline may be due precisely to the expectations of miners with respect to the Merge, as many are already moving to other cryptocurrencies.
Google's participation in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain
The interesting thing is that the Twitter profile that unveiled Google's countdown that is Sam Padilla, i.e., Google Developer.
His profile reads “Building the future of blockchain infra Google Cloud. Rethinking democracy and community ATX DAO.”
Nevertheless, developers from Google are not the only tech-savvy teams keeping a close eye on the Merge.
Indeed, it was revealed in August that parent company Alphabet (formerly Google) had already invested $1.5 billion in blockchain companies.
In August, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who previously expressed doubts about the metaverse, confirmed his enthusiasm for the technological revolution brought about by Bitcoin.
The latest data from Google Search indicates that searches using the term "Ethereum Merge" have increased significantly.
Here it shows that Google users are also interested in the process, as the above search term has achieved a score above 50 over the past month, reaching a high of 100 on September 3.
A value of 100 was defined as the "peak popularity of the term". Also, a value of 50 shows that the term is only half-common. The latest data indicates the undoubted popularity of the merger among Google users.
The merger is attracting huge interest from Singapore, according to CoinGecko. Other countries interested in integrating include Switzerland, Canada, Germany, the United States, and the Netherlands.
CoinGecko showed these rankings based on the frequency of ten search terms such as “ETH Merge,” “Ethereum Merge,” and “Ethereum PoW.” These terms were later combined before the overall ranking.
It's worth noting that Google or Alphabet for that matter, don't seem to be very interested in the financial aspects of cryptocurrencies.
They seem to be more interested in the technological aspects of the underlying networks, protocols, and blockchain.
Indeed, a sincere and deep interest, not related to market volatility, but to the technological revolution that began on October 31, 2008, with the publication of the famous whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The Bitcoin Revolution and Technology Created the World's First Cryptocurrency
Unfortunately, many people underestimated the cryptocurrency - Bitcoin - when it first appeared on the Internet, its market value was zero, and it has not received any resonance in a year and a half.
The first 50 BTC was created by Nakamoto on January 3, 2009, but until August 2010 there was no way to exchange it for free online for fiat currency, that is, the dollar.
Bitcoin did not start as a financial revolution, but rather as a technological revolution, and with time it became a financial revolution due to its massive volatility.
The price of Bitcoin when it first appeared in the crypto markets in August 2010 was around $0.06, and it was already trading at $0.3 by the end of the year. After just five months in the crypto markets, its value had already increased by 400%.
The following year closed it at $4.5, up another +140%, while it closed 2012 at $13.5, up +200%. In November of that year, there was the first halving, and the following year was the first giant speculative bubble after the halving, which drove the price up to $1,100, an incredible 8000% profit in one year.
The above numbers show that the purely financial aspects of those years ended up completely outperforming the technological ones, although, in fact, the real revolution of Bitcoin and Blockchain is still primarily a technological revolution and only a financial one.
Although there are few people who care more about the technological revolution of Bitcoin than the financial revolution, it seems that Google decided to move forward in this field, without getting too preoccupied with the performance of the market.
