USDC, Tether announce support for Ethereum proof-of-stake

Two of the largest stablecoin issuers — Tether and USDC — announced Tuesday that they will support Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) chain, as Ethereum’s “Merge” looms and crypto miners are banding together against the abandonment of mining. 

See related article: Prominent Chinese ETH miner plans proof-of-work fork amid The Merge

Fast facts

• Tether said it is important that the Ethereum ecosystem “is not weaponized to cause confusion and harm within the ecosystem” in its Tuesday announcement.

• The company said it “will support PoS Ethereum in line with the official schedule.”

• Tether said the transition must go smoothly to ensure the long-term health of DeFi and other ecosystems using Tether tokens.

• USDC said they will fully and individually support the proof-of-stake chain after the merger.

• “The Merge” is intended to shift the Ethereum blockchain from the current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, which is expected to happen on Sept. 19.

• The merge can effectively eliminate crypto mining, which is built on the basis of PoW consensus model, and it aroused dissatisfaction among miners and plans to fork the Ethereum blockchain to keep mining programs running.

• Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin acknowledged last week that if the miners’ fork grows large, a lot of applications will have to choose between the two. 

See related article: Ethereum will soon turn 7 — and its upcoming ‘Merge’ will be well worth the wait