Ethereum merge can make crypto payments popular again: Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin on Monday said that crypto payments will once again “make sense” as transaction costs are expected to reduce after the Ethereum merge.

He made this comment in his keynote speech at the Korea Blockchain Week 2022, an annual industry event that has taken place since 2018. This year, industry heavyweights including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao are part of the event and expressed their ideas on the future of blockchain.

Vitalik also shared Ethereum's next mainstream growth strategy. He expects more people to make payments with Ethereum for everyday transactions in the next couple of years.

He further addressed the decline of the popularity of crypto payments, “After 2018, cryptocurrency payments have become less popular and it is pretty clear that fees are one of the reasons for the decline in popularity.”

Vitalik also stated that the next 10 years will transform Ethereum and the crypto space. He also highlighted that transition from Proof of work (PoW) to a Proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism would reduce the gas fees. (The Ethereum merge is the moment at which this switch will take place.) “In the future, with rollups, with all of the improvements to efficiency, the transaction costs could go down to US$0.05 or even be as low as 0.2 cents,” he said.

According to the co-founder, the Merge is expected to happen during mid-week of September or during the last week of September.