Ethereum network has officially switched to the Proof of Stake protocol
Mining is no longer required to create blocks on the Ethereum blockchain. We have switched to the Proof of Stake protocol which does not require calculations, so the energy consumption of the network will be reduced by about 99%
At 6.44 UTC on September 15 (8.44 in the morning in Italy), the Ethereum network switched from the Proof of Work protocol to the Proof of Stake, completing the update called Merge.
Switching to the Proof of Stake means that to create new blocks on the Ethereum blockchain it will no longer be necessary to solve cryptographic calculations with dedicated hardware but a validation of the same will be sufficient after having committed 32 ether in a process known as “staking”.
Therefore, anyone with enough ether (the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network) will be able to create new blocks.
As mining with dedicated hardware that absorbs large amounts of energy is no longer necessary, it is estimated that the upgrade of Ethereum to Merge will reduce the energy consumption of the network by about 99%. This also implies that Ethereum miners, if they want to continue monetizing their hardware, will have to direct their resources to other cryptocurrencies that still have the Proof of Work protocol.
In a Twitter post, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin called it ” a great moment for the Ethereum ecosystem ” and added that ” everyone who helped make the merge happen should be proud today .”
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.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022
