Data from AnalytEx indicates that Ethereum activity declined in August. However the successful Merge event should allow network activity to rally.
AnalytEx on Pre-Merge Ethereum
Subsequent to The Merge, data from AnalytEx showed that the user activity index on Ethereum Chain stood at 53 as of Sept. 17. The activity index provides insights into users’ activity on Ethereum. It is calculated by a combination of factors, including active wallets on the network, gas fees for transactions, and other transaction statistics. A score of 53 indicates user activity on the chain is moderate.
A recent report by Decentralized Finance (DeFi) analytics platform AnalytEx considered the performance of Ethereum network in August prior to The Merge, which was successfully executed on Sept. 15.
AnalytEx is part of the suite of products offered by blockchain security firm HashEx.
Let’s take a look at some of the findings from August on Ethereum:
Total Number of Transactions
According to the report, in August, Ethereum logged 34.9 million transactions in total. Daily average transactions on the network stood at 1.1 million. The uncertainty that surrounded the outcome of The Merge led to a 6% decline in transactions on the network in August.
So far in September, 18.9 million transactions have been completed on Ethereum.
Ethereum Block Statistics
Per the AnalytEx report, in August, the average number of blocks issued on Ethereum daily dropped by 2.1%. The average number of blocks created per day was 6,332. Total block size, however, increased by 2% during the month.
Since the beginning of September, an average of 6,300 blocks have been created per day on Ethereum.
Transaction Fees
The report considered the average gas price paid to process transactions on Ethereum in August and found a 31.8% decline in gas fees on the network. According to AnalytEx, the average fee paid for transactions on Ethereum in August was 18.31 GWEI. This was a direct result of the decline in transactions count on the network in August.
According to AnalytEx, average gas fees to process transactions on Ethereum stood at 18.2 GWEI at press time in September.
AnalytEx on Post-Merge Ethereum
It is no longer news that the transition of the Ethereum Network into a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism was a success. According to data from Nansen, there are 431,000 unique validators on the PoS network. Since the merge, the participation rate by these validators has stood at 98%, data from Glassnode shows.
Data from BeaconScan showsthat finalized epochs on the PoS network were 147,579 at press time (with 32 blocks making up one epoch). In regard to income paid to validators on Ethereum mainnet, the average daily income as of Sept. 17 stood at 0.003741 ETH (or just over $5).
Since The Merge, 147,581 epochs out of 147,582 have been finalized. The amount of missed blocks has also declined, indicating that there is little cause for concern. With sustained growth in the rise of staked ETH participation rate on the network, the Ethereum Merge seems poised to become one of the most successful upgrades in the history of blockchain technology.