It is a revolution in the world of cryptocurrencies. Ethereum, the second largest digital currency after Bitcoin, drastically changed its operating protocol on Thursday, September 15. An operation that specialists have called in English “The Merge” (“The Merger”). Now, it no longer needs mining to make Ethereum currency, which reduces power consumption by 99%. In the midst of a global energy crisis, this is not anecdotal.
Specialists estimate that to manufacture Ethereum currency, it was necessary until now to consume the equivalent of the annual electricity bill of a country like Belgium or the Netherlands. Indeed, validating the creation of an ether, like a bitcoin moreover, requires very long calculation operations, called mining, which mobilize hundreds of thousands of computers dedicated to this task.
By changing the validation protocol on September 15, Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, removes this mining. There is no longer proof of work accomplished but proof of stake, which consumes much less energy. Today, Ethereum, which mobilized up to 0.2% of the world’s energy, consumes almost no more.
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
The energy balance of cryptocurrencies has often been an argument advanced by their detractors to denigrate them. In recent years, miners have understood this and are using green energy, hydropower or wind power, both to reduce their carbon footprint, but also because this energy is cheaper. The cryptocurrencies energy efficient are the future of this industry. It remains to be seen whether the bitcoin king will also one day resolve to sobriety.
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