Google jumps in on the Ethereum Merge bandwagon with a nifty easter egg added a few days before the highly-anticipated Merge scheduled this week.
As a show of support for the upcoming Ethereum Merge happening in less than three days, tech juggernaut Google is counting down the time with an updated countdown ticker. Nobody saw it coming, especially since the feature only came out a few days ago.
Google’s nod comes just as the Ethereum network’s long-awaited transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) method of validating transactions is merely a few days away. The change will see the popular blockchain network moving to a less energy-intensive PoS method in answer to the clamor regarding the network’s carbon footprint.
Google’s Ethereum Merge Easter Egg
So, how does Google’s Ethereum Merge easter egg show up? When you type any variation of “Ethereum Merge” or “The Merge” into Google will show a countdown ticker with the estimated time left until D-Day. What’s worth noting is that the time left until the Merge is based on three factors:
Difficulty rate (or the number of times a miner calculates hashes to record a block of transactions)
Hash rate (or the total combined computing power used on the entire network)
Merge difficulty
The kicker? Two cartoon versions of happy bears running toward each other with their arms outstretched. And as the timer counts the hours down and the Merge date draws nearer, the two bears will move closer.
Check out Google Cloud developer Sam Padilla’s tweet on September 9, saying the time was a “fun little surprise” and a way to show their appreciation of “the work that has been going into [the Merge] for years.” In the tweet, he tagged Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum researcher Justin Drake. You will also notice the distance between the two smiling bears.
Below is a screenshot of Google’s Ethereum Merge countdown taken at this time of writing. Notice how much closer the two bears have gotten.
If things go as planned, the two bears would meet in the middle and merge into one panda, Ethereum’s de facto mascot specifically for the transition. The Google Doodle reflects the high anticipation the Merge has received, earning such acknowledgment from the tech giant.
According to Padilla, Google’s search and labs team worked on the countdown timer after some employees expressed their desire to create “some cool easter egg” for the Ethereum Merge. Still, he implied that he had a hand in “kickstarting” the idea until a discussion in the company’s internal Web3 community chats ultimately led to the implementation of the timer.
He likewise noted that such a quick turnaround for implementing features related to Google’s search engine doesn’t happen often. In his Twitter post, Padilla explained that Google’s Ethereum Merge time is connected directly to the blockchain, updating the countdown in real time. “The underlying data is getting pulled directly from the blockchain via some of the nodes we run,” he said.
Google’s keen anticipation of the Merge could be due to the tech giant’s increased involvement in the crypto space, establishing a Web3 team under Google Cloud on May 6. However, Google developers are not the only ones waiting with bated breath for the Ethereum Merge.
Recent search data from Google revealed that searches for “Ethereum Merge” generated a score above 50 several times over the past month. It even reached a peak of 100 on September 3, which is classed as “peak popularity for the term,” while a value of 50 means the term is “half as popular.”
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