Ethereum Merge Seems to be Successful Despite Dour Predictions
Ethereum will now use less energy now it’s proof-of-stake.
The second largest cryptocurrency in the world, Ethereum, has opted for a software upgrade known as The Merge which will change how transactions are managed on the Ethereum blockchain. The latter is a public and decentralised ledger that underpins the cryptocurrency and generates ether tokens. With Ethereum Merge, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin, will reduce its carbon emissions by more than 99%.
The Ethereum Merge
Announcing Ethereum Merge, the company’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin put this on Twitter “And we finalised! Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.”
With Ethereum Merge, the original proof-of-work system, which required computers to play a guessing game to validate transactions, will be replaced by proof-of-stake, which allows validation of transactions via ether that’s put up for collateral via a new blockchain called Beacon Chain.
This is good news because the proof-of-work system of “mining” ether was very energy intensive. Proof of stake will reduce energy consumption on the Ethereum network by as much as 99.95%, says the Ethereum Foundation.
Short sellers have been betting against ether recently as they believed Ethereum Merge would lead to security problems and might weaken faith in the cryptocurrency. Many in the community believed something would go wrong.
Christopher Calicott, a crypto investor at Trammell Ventures, said, “It’s very difficult for me to see how a fully functioning platform with a market cap of around US$200 (AU$278) billion can essentially change the engines out in flight and not have some sort of security issue in all that complexity.”
Before the Ethereum Merge, the Ethereum Foundation offered a US$1 million bounty for any bugs that could be found. It lasted from August 24 to September 8. The top bounty for “critical” bugs has now returned to US$250,000 (AU$347,050).
Till now, there haven’t been any signs of anything terrible happening under the hood, and Ethereum Merge seems to be a success. The popular cryptocurrency currently trades at US$1,600. It has largely remained unchanged from 24 hours earlier. However, it is down 42% from six months ago when ether was US$2,800 (AU$3,887).
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