If Bitcoin is crypto's answer to gold, Ethereum is the closest thing it has to its own internet. Anyone who wants to mint a new token, launch a crypto app, or spend $150,000 on a Bored Ape nonfungible token, or NFT, probably uses the Ethereum network. More than $3bn in transaction volume flows through Ethereum daily, traded in the network's native token, Ether. About $60bn in crypto assets sit on its blockchain through third-party apps. Aside from Bitcoin, no other network is more critical to crypto's infrastructure or its future.

Tinkering with Ethereum is no trifling matter. Yet the network's developers aren't just about to tinker — they're on the cusp of overhauling the core plumbing and mechanics of Ethereum in an upgrade that enthusiasts call The Merge.