The merger or The Merge, which is considered one of the biggest upgrades to the Ethereum blockchain to date, reduced network power consumption by 99.9% immediately.
On September 15, the Ethereum blockchain switched from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in an effort to become a green blockchain. What followed was an immediate and steep drop in the total power consumption of the Ethereum network.
Before the Merge update, in 2022, Ethereum’s energy consumption ranged from 46.31 terawatt hours (TWh) per year to 93.98 TWh per year. The lowest energy consumption of Ethereum was recorded on December 26, 2019, with 4.75 TWh per year.
As of October 15, the day of the Ethereum meltdown, Ethereum’s energy has been reduced by more than 99.9% and continues to maintain low energy consumption. As a result, the network’s carbon footprint currently stands at 0.1 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) per year.
If it is translated into individual Ethereum transactions, the electricity consumption is only 0.03 kilowatt hours (kWh) and the carbon footprint is 0.01 kgCO2which, according to digiconomist, is equivalent to the energy used to watch two hours of YouTube.
Despite the celebrations surrounding Ethereum’s transition to PoS, community members raised concerns related to blockchain centralization and increased regulatory scrutiny.
The centralization aspect became apparent right after the merger, as 46.15% of the nodes for data storage, transaction processing, and adding new blockchain blocks could be attributed to just two addresses.
Although Ethereum proponents claim that anyone with 32 Ether (ETH) can become a validator, it is important to note that 32 ETH, or about $41,416, is not a small amount for a novice or common trader.
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