American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it will temporarily suspend certain token deposits and withdrawals as Ethereum developers transition the blockchain network to consensus proof-of-stake, or PoS.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Coinbase product manager Armin Rezaiean-Asel said that during the “merger” event, the exchange will “briefly pause” deposits and withdrawals of Ether (ETH) and ERC-tokens. 20 “as a precautionary measure” to handle migration. The exchange also warned users against scammers offering ETH2 tokens, saying that users did not need to take any additional steps to receive ETH locked up before the merger.
“Although the merge is expected to be seamless from a user perspective, this downtime allows us to ensure that the transition has been successfully reflected by our systems,” Rezaiean-Asel said. “We do not expect any other networks or currencies to be affected and we do not expect any impact to trading ETH and ERC-20 tokens through our centralized trading products.”
Ethereum Proof-of-Stake
It’s finally happening! Here’s how we’re getting ready for The Mergehttps://t.co/AIIUqWcDxm
— Coinbase (@coinbase) August 16, 2022
The cryptocurrency exchange is likely not the only one announcing measures or changes in trading activity in view of the approaching date of the Ethereum merger. Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 12 that, although there could be “unforeseen circumstances”, the developers moved up the tentative date for the merger to September 15.
After the Ethereum network goes from proof-of-work to PoS, many expect its power consumption to drop precipitously, scalability to improve, and it to be less vulnerable to attack. Nevertheless, Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 13 that ETH gas rates will not necessarily drop and transactions on the network will likely not be noticeably faster than before.
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