On Thursday, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, expressed his perspectives on how he expects the blockchain network to develop over the next several years. Buterin claims the Ethereum “merge” could make the blockchain move to a less energy-intensive and more effective manner of recording transactions. The difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Buterin, is that Bitcoiners believe Bitcoin to be 80% complete. In contrast, Ethereans believe Ethereum to be 40% complete, he said in his opening remarks at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Paris. He said that the long-planned “merge” technical upgrade by Ethereum will cause the 40 percent figure to increase. Buterin said, “Ethereum can go up to 55% complete after the merge,” “We’re getting close, which is amazing.” Ethereum Merge Aims For September The Ethereum merge is expected to happen around September 19, according to an announcement made by Ethereum developers last week. Although the transfer to the new mechanism, known as Proof-of-Stake (PoS), will strengthen Ethereum, Buterein called the shift “a long and hard process.” He acknowledged that Proof-of-Stake had limitations, such as weak subjectivity, despite being safer than Proof-of-Effort. Buterin still believes that the positives outweigh the negatives. Following the merge, Ethereum’s roadmap calls for a four-part upgrade, dubbed “surge, verge, purge, and splurge,” to enhance the network’s s...