Cryptocurrency ‘mining’ eats electricity and Ethereum says its long-awaited upgrade should cut its energy consumption by 99.9%.
Bruce Whitfield gets input from Blockchain Academy consultant Carel de Jager and Upnup MD Tony Mallam.
– Ethereum blockchain has completed a major software upgrade called “The Merge”.
– The crypto community has hailed the long-awaited development a historic moment in blockchain history. Bruce Whitfield finds out why.
“The Merge” is being called a historic moment in blockchain history.
It’s a long-awaited upgrade by Ethereum, the software platform powering the cryptocurrency “ether”.
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It’s exciting because miners who had previously driven the blockchain are cast aside in favour of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient alternatives, explains Tony Mallam (MD of fintech platform Upnup).
What it means is that today the ethereum blockchain actually changed their protocols from proof of work to proof of stake, POW to POS. And what this effectively does is stop crypto mining on the ethereum blockchain. That supposedly is going to save one massive amount of electricity.
Tony Mallam, MD – Upnup
For more detail, read “Ethereum just completed The Merge – here’s how much energy it’s saving“.
Bruce Whitfield also asks Blockchain Academy consultant Carel de Jager to explain why the crypto community is so excited about this development.
Some people say this is the biggest event in crypto since the launch of Bitcoin in 2008… It’s an attempt by the Ethereum network to reduce its energy usage, which we all know has been a hot topic, especially in crypto… at the front of priorities of investors…
Carel de Jager, Consultant – Blockchain Academy
Energy use is very critical to our cryptocurrency work. It’s because when ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ designed it, he needed to find a way to keep all of the network participants on it. How he did it… was to allow people to stake electricity, so burn electricity to act honestly.
Carel de Jager, Consultant – Blockchain Academy
The Ethereum merge will work in very much the same way, with the same psychology behind it… but instead of burning electricity, you now put up the Ether currency itself as a promise, or a stake that you will act honestly.
Carel de Jager, Consultant – Blockchain Academy
De Jager adds that the Ethereum overhaul involves a series of upgrades.
“The next one is the ‘The Surge’, and then ‘The Verge’…”
For more detail, listen to the interview at the top of the article
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