Two Ethereum leaders have agreed that a more immediate merge of Ethereum 1.0 and Ethereum 2.0 is worthwhile. Ethereum’s roadmap includes a merge between the Ethereum 1.0 mainnet (which is currently used for transactions) and the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain (which is used for staking).
Under the original roadmap, sharding was prioritized over the merge. Sharding aims to increase Ethereum’s scalability and transaction throughput. However, with the introduction of rollups, sharding is no longer the only way to improve Ethereum’s performance.
The merge will additionally mark a more thorough transition to proof-of-stake. Currently, it is possible to stake ETH, but the merge will make it possible to withdraw staking rewards. The commenter who suggested the prioritized merge noted that this change could bring “immediate liquidity” to staking participants.
