Ethereum developers are proposing a reduction of block reward from 3 eth to 2 eth per block📉 at the same time as a delay of the difficulty increase
Following a change in plan from contract Casper to beacon Casper, ethereum’s confirmation times may soon start to increase due to a protocol rule that significantly increases ⛏mining difficulty to incentivize a move to Proof of Stake (PoS).
Hybrid Casper, however, probably won’t be ready until next year, so that difficulty rule is to be changed to provide for more time. In addition, block rewards are to be reduced according to the proposal which says 🗣
“In order to maintain stability of the system, a block reward reduction that offsets the ice age delay would leave the system in the same general state as before. Reducing the reward also decreases the likelihood of a miner driven chain split as Ethereum approaches proof-of-stake.”