I’m suggesting Toronto, partly out of Canadian pride. It makes sense as the city where the ETH whitepaper was written. I think its a shame that ETH’s Canadian roots aren’t mentioned. It makes sense that the city at the start marks the largest milestone.
In the alternative I’d suggest Ottawa. It was the city chosen as the capital when the two colonies merged into the Province of Canada and is located in the same province as where ETH was proposed.
PS: Also everyone likes Canada so Canadian cities cause the least controversy.
For the merge specifically, I’d support Virgil.
At the concrete level, I think it’s a pretty clear, and important.
I don’t feel we should shy away from that, and in retrospect I’d be proud of a community that stands up for it’s values.
As a defensible abstract-symbolic reason detached from the political, Virgil guided Dante through hell to Paradise. The transition from Froniter to Serenity speaks similarly.
My other suggestions of lesser conviction follow:
The Argo.
Argo is a constellation, though a two-word name is a departure from Beacon Chain naming convention thus far. It sounds similar enough to ‘The Merge’, though the symbolic meaning is a reference to a great journey, or rather, the ship that carries the journey.
Budapest.
For the reasons presented by others, though as much as I love devcon city names, I suppose a question is whether “Metropolis continues into Serenity”. Execution changes feel ‘concrete’ as cities do. People have connections to cities, and the message of “cities around the world” as a theme is a vehicle for propagation of (early Ethereum) values.