After London Hardfork, Ethereum has burned roughly 70,000 Ethers. The hardfork pushes users to Ethereum 2.0 of Proof of Stake departs from Proof of Work.
How the Ethereum economy will change after the transition into Ethereum 2.0? We want to explore several hypotheses. Before we do, we want to know what is different between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum
Both cryptocurrencies are similar in their core functionality with wallet, blockchain, and mining. However, what makes Ethereum distinguishable from Bitcoin is that Ehtereum is a centralized platform with a dual account structure: the private key and contract-code account or latter called a smart contract.
Because of the different setups of Ethereum, people can program on top of the Ethereum platform or the founder called a programmable cryptocurrency.
Ethereum mining
Because of differences between Ethereum and Bitcoin, Ethereum mining operates differently from Bitcoin too.
Ethash is a mining algorithm Ehtereum uses rather than the SHA-256 algorithm Bitcoin mining use.
Centralized mining mechanism
You need to have an account register in the mining pool in order to mine Ethereum. That has been said, Ethereum is controlled by big nodes that centralized the token supply.
Unlimited token supply in mining
Ethereum miners potentially can earn Ethereum unlimited.
Centralized problems
Ethereum got a problem. Mining nodes are very powerful and control the profits.
51% attack
51% attack is more likely to happen in Ethereum because their nodes can easily accumulate more than 50% of the network mining hash rate to dominate the system.
51% attack did happen in Ethereum Classic
Ethereum Classic which is Ethereum’s hardfork easily reached 51% attack multiple times in a month in 2020 further shows that Ethereum’s fundamental assumption had a false design.
EIP-1559
The EIP-1559 purpose is to reduce the powerful ever node to prevent 51% attack from possible nodes. It forces all nodes to give up their power to everyone who holds Ethereum. Everyone has a chance to mine Ethereum when they have Ethereum so-called Proof of Stake.
Miners revenge
Miners can potentially revenge the network after EIP-1559 by accumulating more Ethers in one or multiple nodes to reach 51% attack which may eventually bring all networks down.
Eth 2.0 to rescue
However, there is likely less chance that Eth 2.0 wallet becomes the ever biggest Ethereum wallet that worths $21.3B in the network.
Ethereum becomes deflationary
In contrast to Bitcoin which is speculatively an inflationary hedge asset, Ethereum forces itself into a deflationary hedge asset that its valuation may stop growing but the quantity will continue growing.
In conclusion
Ethereum trade-off its valuation to save the entire network from 51% attack that may eventually bring the whole ship down. Its economy will turn to deflationary what quantity will continue growing but the valuation may sacrifice in the long term.