After The Merge, Ethereum will have two layers:

📍The pre-Merge execution layer which will be responsible for managing and synchronizing the existing state of the blockchain, running the EVM, processing user transactions, and managing mempool; and

📍The Beacon Chain consensus layer which will be responsible for transaction bundling, building new blocks, and maintaining the PoS consensus mechanism.

With the change in the consensus system, Ethereum's economic model will change entirely. Gone would be the flat block reward of 2 ETH for finding a new block and introducing a comparatively complex validator incentive structure that includes many variables.

https://eth2book.info/altair/part2/incentives/rewards

In addition to the standard validator reward, each validator will be eligible for a new form of compensation after The Merge. This additional revenue stream comes from what's called priority fees charged when transactions on the execution layer can't get done fast enough and need help getting into blockchain space quickly, so they don't become lost or delayed.

While modeling suggests that Ethereum will become a deflationary asset immediately post-merge due to a drop in ETH issuance and the EIP 1559 burning mechanism, the staking rewards will move inversely with the total number of validators, and it's expected that the total number of validators may increase post-merge.

https://ultrasound.money/

So, the question remains as to what would happen to all the Ethereum miners and who would benefit most from this.

It seems like most Ethereum miners plan to pivot after the Merge, but what about people calling for hard forks or shifting to mining the good old Ethereum Classic. Only time will tell how things will play out, but I can say with certainty that the network effects of Ethereum and the NFT and DeFi applications built on top of Ethereum will be brutal to match for any other Layer 1 blockchain, let alone a fork of Ethereum.

https://decrypt.co/109136/how-ethereum-miners-plan-to-pivot-after-the-merge

While I am curbing my enthusiasm and not joining the bandwagon of "experts" suggesting that Ethereum will go to $10,000 by the end of 2022 (507% increase in 113 days) due to the projected 90% reduction in issuance of Ethereum post-merge, I am long-term bullish on Ethereum.

Having said that, if anybody is under the impression that post-merge, we will suddenly start witnessing a drastic reduction of gas fees or a massive increase in throughput, then I apologize for breaking it to you, but none of that is going to happen until we see the completion of all the phases of the Ethereum Multiverse followed by the Merge:

🔌The Surge 🔌The Verge 🔌The Purge 🔌The Splurge

Feel free to collect this entry as a free collectible item and if you want the cover art NFT for this edition then hop on to Opensea.

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e/81265518174591867588724246747269261404010088280596999658491564601928117649409