On Sept 15, the Ethereum network transitioned from PoW to PoS mechanism in an effort to become a green blockchain.
The transition assisted the network in limiting its electricity consumption.
Recent reports revealed that ETH’s energy consumption and carbon footprints have dropped by more than 99.99%.
However, since the successful completion of The Merge, which is considered as one of the most significant blockchain upgrades on Ethereum to date, there has been a 99.99% reduction in the network’s energy consumption.
On September 15, the Ethereum blockchain transitioned to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in an effort to become a green blockchain. The transition assisted the Ethereum network in limiting its electricity consumption.
At the time of writing, Ethereum's proof-of-stake mechanism only consumes 0.0026 TWh/yr across the entire global network. This is a significant drop when compared to the figures prior to the merge, which ranged from 46.31 to 93.98 TWh/yr.
Not only that, but the blockchain's carbon footprint has also dropped by 99.99%. As a result, the network's annual carbon footprint currently stands at 0.1 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2).
The merge, which was expected to reduce the network's energy consumption by 99 percent and result in a net reduction of 90 percent in annual ETH issuance, reduced the energy consumption figures in just three months after the transition.
However, an advancement in transaction speed was also anticipated, though it was not immediately visible after the merge. In response, the Ethereum developers stated that the transaction speed will increase further after the Shanghai upgrade, which is scheduled for March 2023.
In addition, the centralization aspect also became more apparent after the Merge, as only two addresses could be attributed to 46.15% of the nodes for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new blockchain blocks. As a result, Paxful delisted ETH last week, citing concerns about its centralization nature.
What do you think, will Ethereum be named the greenest blockchain in the future? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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