Search engine Google has added a countdown feature for Ethereum’s (ETH) upcoming merge as global interest in the leading smart contract platform’s upgrade sharply rises.
Google Cloud blockchain developer Sam Padilla unveiled the new feature days ago, telling his Twitter following that if they google the phrase “the merge,” they’d be in for a surprise.
“Go Google ‘the merge’ for a fun little surprise and appreciation. Everyone is so excited for what is coming and appreciative of the work that has been going into this for years.”
The new feature keeps track of the days, hours, and minutes left until Ethereum’s highly anticipated transition from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake. It also keeps track of Ethereum’s hash rate and difficulty levels.
Google’s new addition comes after interest for the merge hit an all-time high worldwide. Google Trends shows a gradual increase in “Ethereum merge” searches over the last year, and an explosion in the last two months.
Padilla goes on to say that while he pitched the idea for a countdown, others made it a reality.
“It wasn’t just me. And the actual lifting of the work was on the search and labs team internally. All I did was kickstart the idea and discussion that led to this hehe But this is indeed pretty cool.”
Ethereum is changing hands for $1,778 at time of writing, a 3.6% gain during the last 24 hours.
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