Singapore takes the top spot, followed by a tie between Switzerland and Canada. Singapore ranks #1 as the country most interested in the Ethereum Merge, based on a new worldwide research study by CoinGecko, the world’s largest independent cryptocurrency data aggregator.
The research examines global Google Trends data of English search terms frequently used by people interested in the upcoming Ethereum Merge. These terms were then combined to give each country a ‘total search score’ to discover which countries have been the most interested in the Ethereum Merge after the Gray Glacier Hard Fork on June 30, 2022.
With a total search score of 377, Singapore leads by a landslide, with its population having the highest search levels for phrases ‘Ethereum Merge’, ‘ETH Classic’ and ‘Ethereum’ worldwide, and sees the second-highest search levels for ‘ETH merge’, after Switzerland.
Switzerland and Canada draw a tie, both placing second with a total search score of 286 each. While the Switzerland population has the most searches for ‘ETH’ and ‘ETH Merge’, Canada ranks highest globally for the term ‘ETH PoW’, an abbreviation of the Ethereum Proof of Work consensus mechanism.
Germany, the United States and Turkey see highest search levels for the term ‘Ethereum PoW’ (Ethereum Proof of Work), and Netherlands and Australia rank third and fourth in search levels for ‘ETH Merge’. These countries, alongside Singapore and Switzerland, contribute to worldwide search levels for ‘Ethereum Merge’ and ‘ETH Merge’, and make up 16% of the study’s total search score.
Among these top 8 countries, ‘Proof of Work’-related searches are 169% more than ‘Proof of Stake’-related searches, and ‘Ethereum’ and ‘ETH’ searches are 40% higher than ‘Ethereum Classic’ and ‘ETH Classic’ searches.
The Ethereum blockchain’s Merge is a milestone event in the cryptocurrency industry. The Merge refers to the long-awaited upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain, where it will merge with the Beacon chain. This will represent a shift from a Proof of Work to a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, and aims to increase its scalability and security. Preparations for the Merge are currently taking place, and the Merge is expected to complete between September 13 and 15, 2022.
Bobby Ong, COO and co-founder of CoinGecko commented on the findings: “Anticipation for the Merge is at an all-time high, as its effects will ripple throughout the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. The top 8 rankings in this list seem to encompass countries with strong Ethereum communities, which might explain their high search scores in this study.
On a more technical level – there is a slew of miners who want to continue mining the Proof of Work version of Ethereum, which will likely result in the formation of multiple, contentious hard forks post-Merge. It is therefore unsurprising that search terms like ‘Ethereum PoW’ and ‘ETH PoW’ trend higher in these last two months.”
The research examines global Google Trends data of English search terms frequently used by people interested in the upcoming Ethereum Merge, namely ‘Ethereum Merge’, ‘ETH Merge’, ‘Ethereum’, ‘ETH’, ‘ETH Classic’, ‘Ethereum Classic’, ‘Ethereum PoW’, ‘ETH PoW’, ‘Ethereum PoS’ and ‘ETH PoS’. ‘PoW’ and ‘PoS’ are abbreviations for Proof of Work and Proof of Stake respectively. Other similar terms were considered but later omitted from the data set due to insignificant or insufficient data.
These terms were then combined to give each country a ‘total search score’ to find out which countries have been the most interested in the Ethereum Merge, from July 1 to September 4, 2022.
About CoinGecko
Since 2014, CoinGecko has been a trusted source of information by millions of cryptocurrency investors. Its mission is to empower the cryptocurrency community with an in-depth, 360-degree overview of the market. CoinGecko delivers comprehensive information from thousands of data points such as price, trading volume, market capitalization, developer strength, community statistics, and more. It currently tracks over 13,000 crypto assets from over 500 exchanges worldwide. For more information about CoinGecko, visit www.coingecko.com.
