Cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin receive criticisms for their mining processes which consume a lot of energy. Ethereum’s biggest-ever upgrade just went live and according to industry experts, this is a major turnaround for the entire cryptocurrency sector. The massive software upgrade which is designed to reduce the cryptocurrency’s energy consumption by at least 99 percent was successful.
Following the upgrade, Ethereum has moved to a new system known as proof-of-stake which swaps out miners for validators, thereby reducing energy consumption. With the new system, instead of running large networks of computers, validators leverage their existing cache of ether as a means to verify transactions and mint new tokens. This way, energy consumption is drastically reduced and according to expert opinions, the protocol is more sustainable and secure. The price of Ether soared following the announcement.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, the new system will use 99.95 percent less energy, an advantage that’ll see Ethereum surpass its rival Bitcoin, according to experts. It is pertinent to know that prior to the software upgrade which is known as Merge, a single transaction on Ethereum consumes as much power as an average US household uses in a week, according to Digiconomist.
Ethereum’s new system obliviates the old system of computers validating transactions by solving complex maths problems and introduces the new “proof of stake” system, where individuals and companies act as validators, using their ether as collateral, to win newly created tokens.
Via a tweet, Ethereum’s founder said that “Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem.”
And we finalized!
Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.
Commenting on the update, Danny Ryan, a core developer who has been working on the merge for five years said that “There might be some sort of small fire that gets put out very quickly. But the network as a whole — because of the redundancy across all this different software — will very likely be stable and fine,” adding that developers will be watching for any irregularities via both automated and manual monitoring systems. He also mentioned that if any problem arises, the corresponding thing will be on guard to debug and release a patch to users. He, however, reiterated the team’s confidence in the new update.
As of the time of this draft, Ether was trading at $1,604.67.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
