the Merge is coming! a few things to expect

Sharing this thread of Merge info so the community can get acquainted with what to expect in a few months.

1. Unburnt fees (aka tips) on the execution layer (EL) begin going each block's proposer - completely liquid on the EL. Over a typical week, this is ~14k ETH / $42mm
2. Due to the amount of work required to properly test and verify the Merge across all clients, Beacon Chain validator withdrawals of staked ETH are only expected to be included in the upgrade after (Shanghai). Work from @ralexstokes has started here
3. Post-merge, blocks will arrive exactly every 12s. Today, they arrive in a poisson distribution around ~13s. For devs: do not assume ~13s blocktimes (eg. to calculate an interest rate) - please make sure to use timestamps. More here from @TimBeiko
4. The Merge/ Proof of Stake will not reduce fees on mainnet. Smaller block/ slot times do increase available blockspace, but not significantly. Av. blockspace is only one input which influences fees, the other being demand. Near-term scaling & lower fees will be on Layer 2s!
5. To any stakers: you should start running a local execution layer (EL) client ahead of the Merge. In the future, outsourcing this to third-party providers will open up stakers to slashing risk under the Proof of Custody game
6. The Merge will use accumulated difficulty (Total Terminal Difficulty) to trigger the PoW→PoS upgrade, instead of block height "An attacker cld use a minority of hash power to build a malicious chain fork that wld satisfy the block height req". more here
7. At the Merge, the 2 ETH PoW block reward goes away. new issuance will only come from PoS validators proposing blocks (~.025 ETH) or "attesting" aka voting on network state (~.00002 ETH) 4.3% PoW issuance → .43% in PoS h/t @litocoen. Higher security w/ lower spend!
8. Running a node post-Merge does not require any ETH (and never has). This is an important part of Ethereum culture that should be accessible to all. (Staking independently - aka consensus activities - does require 32 ETH. With some providers, it may be lower than 32.