The Coinbase platform has announced that it will pause all Ethereum transactions during The Merge as a precautionary measure.
Coinbase announces the planned break
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume, found it necessary to prepare for The Merge by taking several precautionary measures, revealing them in a recently published blog post. The main precautionary measure Coinbase is taking is to briefly suspend withdrawals and deposits of ETH and other ERC-20 tokens on its platform until the entire Merge migration is complete. According to the statement, this move will ensure that ETH and ERC-20 tokens are easily exchanged once the migration is complete and provide a seamless user experience after merging.
Precautionary measures for merging
The highly anticipated Merge update that will transform the Ethereum network from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol is in its final stages. The developers have set the interim timeline of September 15 for the final migration of the update, which will accelerate the speed of transactions, reduce gas tariffs and power consumption, and make the platform much more scalable. Therefore, many cryptocurrency exchanges and other cryptocurrency service providers are preparing for this sea change, even though the Ethereum team has reassured that it will not affect users’ funds in any way.
Coinbase also said that the move to suspend Ethereum-based services is strictly a precautionary measure and the team does not expect any serious impact.
An excerpt from the Coinbase statement reads:
“This downtime allows us to ensure that the transition has been successfully reflected by our systems. We do not expect other networks or currencies to be affected and we do not anticipate any impact on ETH and ERC-20 token trading through our centralized trading products. ”
User guidelines
The Coinbase team also guided users on what to expect in the days leading up to the merger and after it. Users have been warned to be on high alert for scams, as such transition moments are privileged times of activity for malicious actors. The team warned users not to send ETH to anyone who claims to be able to upgrade them to “ETH2”, which is a misnomer. In addition, it also clarified that users do not need to take any action to upgrade and that all their funds will remain secure in the protocol and will be able to access them in their wallet on the platform once the merger is complete. Staked ETH will also appear listed separately from any unstatted ETH.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.