Ethereum, a well-known cryptocurrency, has finally finished making the long-awaited transition to proof-of-stake. It has taken years for that upgrade procedure, often known as “The Merge.” The Ethereum Foundation claims that the change made today has reduced Ethereum’s energy use by 99.95%.
The Ethereum blockchain previously relied on proof-of-work, a consensus process that demands a significant amount of computational labor from each decentralized node involved in the blockchain.
The Ethereum blockchain’s operation is fundamentally altered by the proof-of-stake algorithm. Since the network is now protected by staked ETH and validators, there is no longer a need to mine new blocks.
On December 1, 2020, Ethereum first introduced a distinct proof-of-stake Beacon Chain. Parallel to the main Ethereum blockchain, it was operating.
To begin “The Merge,” the Ethereum community issued the Bellatrix update on September 6, 2022. When the Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) value on the original Ethereum blockchain reached a specific level, the community agreed to switch the proof-of-work chain with this proof-of-stake chain.
And that precise occurrence happened earlier today at 06:42 AM UTC, beginning the second part of the changeover called the Paris upgrade.
“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,” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on Twitter.