[LINK] The "Merge" and Ethereum now uses 99.98% less energy

[Stephen Loosley]

The Age Technology
16/09/2022 11:30 AM

An important but largely invisible process known as “The Merge” has been completed this week, constituting the biggest change in cryptocurrency since its inception.

The Merge saw the Ethereum blockchain transition from a disastrously energy-hungry method that used as much electricity as some countries to one that uses about 99.98 per cent less.

That means that almost overnight its ongoing detrimental environmental effect has fallen away, as has its inflationary impact on the cost of powerful PC graphics cards.

Previously Ethereum — one of the major crypto infrastructures — used a system called “proof of work” to validate transactions and make new money. This required users to crunch massively complex mathematical problems to earn coins, leading to industrial-scale farms of computers burning the cheapest energy possible.

The new system uses “proof of stake”, where users lock up tokens for a chance to earn more, eliminating the need for powerful machines and dirty energy.

So what’s the upshot?

Ethereum’s pollution is estimated to fall from 11 million tons of CO2 emissions per year to about 870 tons, although users who’ve invested big in hardware for mining may simply shift to a different network.

Prices for both Nvidia and AMD’s graphics cards are currently in freefall, after years of scarce availability owing to crypto mining demand.

And cryptocurrencies — assuming all goes to plan — may be a step closer to a more sustainable future where decentralised payments do not cost us the health of the environment.

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