The second biggest blockchain has changed the way it validates transactions on its decentralised ledger
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, hasHere we explain what has changed and what the implications might be.It is the name given to a significant change in the security system that underpins the ethereum blockchain, the second most important piece of infrastructure in the entire cryptocurrency space.
But in the background, the community has also been experimenting with another system, called “proof of stake”, running a parallel network using that instead of proof of work. Those two networks are what merged on Thursday: there is now only one network, and everyone on it is relying on proof of stake.The electricity footprint of ethereum should fall from around 8.5GW to less than 85MW, almost overnight. For comparison, Hornsea Two, the largest offshore wind farm in the world, generates 1.
That enormous reduction is because of the fundamental difference between proof of work and proof of stake. In the former, ethereum “miners” competed to burn the most electricity and computing power possible, with the winner awarded a cash prize and the right to validate the previous 10 minutes of transactions.
The 85MW that the ethereum blockchain will continue to use after the merge is low compared with 8.5GW, but high compared with other ways of providing the same amount of computing power: one Raspberry Pi, a £30 credit-card sized computer, runs at 15W andMuch of the electricity powering the computers of ethereum “stakers” will come from zero-carbon sources, but by no means all.Yes – at least when it comes to the environmental impact.
The $387m question. The original cryptocurrency, which still accounts for about a third of the value of the entire sector, is unlikely to ever switch away from proof of work. Its electrical footprint stands at about 15GW, even after the enormous crash in prices this year, and the network as a whole emits the same COBut bitcoin is defined by its conservatism.
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