The Ethereum Merge Is Going To Put Every Ether Miner Out Of Work

In a few weeks, Ethereum is expected to undergo the most significant change in its seven-year history. Until now, the Ethereum blockchain has been secured using a method called “proof of work,” which consumes more electricity than the entire nation of Belgium. Next month’s switch to a new method called “proof of stake” is expected to reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by 1,000. The stakes are high. A bad transition could mean chaos for the many crypto projects built on top of Ethereum. A smooth transition would be the culmination of years of careful planning by Ethereum’s core developers. Over the past year, developers have repeatedly pushed back the date of “The Merge” to give themselves more time to prepare. They completed a final dress rehearsal on August 10, paving the way to make the switch in mid-September. The most immediate consequence of a successful Merger will be putting the world’s Ethereum miners out of work. Over the past seven years, thousands of people have bought high-end graphics cards to help maintain the Ethereum blockchain and earn newly created ether in the process. The new system for updating the Ethereum blockchain doesn’t require the same kind of equipment — or the huge electricity bill that comes with it. Thus, the price of used graphics cards may continue to fall as Ethereum miners leave the industry. But the move to proof-of-stake is much more than just an energy-saving measure—it’s a major overhaul of the Ethereum network. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin believes the merger will lay the foundation for a series of future upgrades that will allow the network to handle a much larger volume of transactions in the coming years. However, critics worry that the new scheme could cause the Ethereum network to become too centralized – and therefore vulnerable to government regulation. Advertising

From proof of work to proof of bet

At a high level of abstraction, here’s how any blockchain works: Someone on the network proposes a block containing a list of recent transactions. Other network participants then verify that the block follows the network rules. If a sufficient number of other network participants accept the block, it becomes the “official” next block in the chain. As long as most network participants are honest, users can be confident that transactions accepted by the majority of the network will not be revoked or modified later. The big challenge for any blockchain project is to prevent a malicious party from creating multiple puppet accounts to “stuff the ballot box”, outvoting honest participants and thus tampering with previous transactions. The big insight of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto—the one who made bitcoin possible—was that this problem could be solved using the “one hash, one vote” principle. On the bitcoin network, whoever has the most computing power—specifically, the ability to calculate SHA-256 hashes—has the most influence over the blocks added to the blockchain. Since honest miners have more hashing power than malicious miners, users can be confident in the integrity of the blockchain — and therefore the integrity of payments made using the bitcoin network. (Check out our bitcoin walkthrough for details on how it works.) When Vitalik Buterin launched Ethereum in 2015, he used a variation of Nakamoto’s scheme. Up until that point, bitcoin mining was already dominated by specialized silicon optimized to compute huge numbers of SHA-256 hashes, locking ordinary bitcoiners out of the mining game. So Buterin developed a new mining algorithm designed to be “memory-hard” – and therefore difficult to speed up with custom hardware. As a result, Ethereum mining is still largely performed using off-the-shelf graphics cards, allowing ordinary Ethereum users to participate. But the economics of the two networks are essentially similar. As the values ​​of bitcoin and ether have risen, it has become profitable for people to spend more and more money mining hardware—and electricity—to create new coins. While this has made the grids safer, it also means that both grids are consuming astronomical amounts of electricity and therefore driving more and more carbon emissions. The bitcoin and Ethereum communities have responded to this issue very differently. Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from public view in 2011. In his absence, bitcoin culture has become increasingly conservative. Many bitcoiners strongly oppose changing the bitcoin mining system, fearing that the changes could open the door to centralization and eventual government control. As a result, bitcoin is unlikely to move away from proof of work in the foreseeable future.

title: “The Ethereum Merge Is Going To Put Every Ether Miner Out Of Work Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-03” author: “Carl Rhodes”

In a few weeks, Ethereum is expected to undergo the most significant change in its seven-year history. Until now, the Ethereum blockchain has been secured using a method called “proof of work,” which consumes more electricity than the entire nation of Belgium. Next month’s switch to a new method called “proof of stake” is expected to reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by 1,000. The stakes are high. A bad transition could mean chaos for the many crypto projects built on top of Ethereum. A smooth transition would be the culmination of years of careful planning by Ethereum’s core developers. Over the past year, developers have repeatedly pushed back the date of “The Merge” to give themselves more time to prepare. They completed a final dress rehearsal on August 10, paving the way to make the switch in mid-September. The most immediate consequence of a successful Merger will be putting the world’s Ethereum miners out of work. Over the past seven years, thousands of people have bought high-end graphics cards to help maintain the Ethereum blockchain and earn newly created ether in the process. The new system for updating the Ethereum blockchain doesn’t require the same kind of equipment — or the huge electricity bill that comes with it. Thus, the price of used graphics cards may continue to fall as Ethereum miners leave the industry. But the move to proof-of-stake is much more than just an energy-saving measure—it’s a major overhaul of the Ethereum network. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin believes the merger will lay the foundation for a series of future upgrades that will allow the network to handle a much larger volume of transactions in the coming years. However, critics worry that the new scheme could cause the Ethereum network to become too centralized – and therefore vulnerable to government regulation. Advertising

From proof of work to proof of bet

At a high level of abstraction, here’s how any blockchain works: Someone on the network proposes a block containing a list of recent transactions. Other network participants then verify that the block follows the network rules. If a sufficient number of other network participants accept the block, it becomes the “official” next block in the chain. As long as most network participants are honest, users can be confident that transactions accepted by the majority of the network will not be revoked or modified later. The big challenge for any blockchain project is to prevent a malicious party from creating multiple puppet accounts to “stuff the ballot box”, outvoting honest participants and thus tampering with previous transactions. The big insight of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto—the one who made bitcoin possible—was that this problem could be solved using the “one hash, one vote” principle. On the bitcoin network, whoever has the most computing power—specifically, the ability to calculate SHA-256 hashes—has the most influence over the blocks added to the blockchain. Since honest miners have more hashing power than malicious miners, users can be confident in the integrity of the blockchain — and therefore the integrity of payments made using the bitcoin network. (Check out our bitcoin walkthrough for details on how it works.) When Vitalik Buterin launched Ethereum in 2015, he used a variation of Nakamoto’s scheme. Up until that point, bitcoin mining was already dominated by specialized silicon optimized to compute huge numbers of SHA-256 hashes, locking ordinary bitcoiners out of the mining game. So Buterin developed a new mining algorithm designed to be “memory-hard” – and therefore difficult to speed up with custom hardware. As a result, Ethereum mining is still largely performed using off-the-shelf graphics cards, allowing ordinary Ethereum users to participate. But the economics of the two networks are essentially similar. As the values ​​of bitcoin and ether have risen, it has become profitable for people to spend more and more money mining hardware—and electricity—to create new coins. While this has made the grids safer, it also means that both grids are consuming astronomical amounts of electricity and therefore driving more and more carbon emissions. The bitcoin and Ethereum communities have responded to this issue very differently. Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from public view in 2011. In his absence, bitcoin culture has become increasingly conservative. Many bitcoiners strongly oppose changing the bitcoin mining system, fearing that the changes could open the door to centralization and eventual government control. As a result, bitcoin is unlikely to move away from proof of work in the foreseeable future.

title: “The Ethereum Merge Is Going To Put Every Ether Miner Out Of Work Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-07” author: “Martina Duhamel”

In a few weeks, Ethereum is expected to undergo the most significant change in its seven-year history. Until now, the Ethereum blockchain has been secured using a method called “proof of work,” which consumes more electricity than the entire nation of Belgium. Next month’s switch to a new method called “proof of stake” is expected to reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by 1,000. The stakes are high. A bad transition could mean chaos for the many crypto projects built on top of Ethereum. A smooth transition would be the culmination of years of careful planning by Ethereum’s core developers. Over the past year, developers have repeatedly pushed back the date of “The Merge” to give themselves more time to prepare. They completed a final dress rehearsal on August 10, paving the way to make the switch in mid-September. The most immediate consequence of a successful Merger will be putting the world’s Ethereum miners out of work. Over the past seven years, thousands of people have bought high-end graphics cards to help maintain the Ethereum blockchain and earn newly created ether in the process. The new system for updating the Ethereum blockchain doesn’t require the same kind of equipment — or the huge electricity bill that comes with it. Thus, the price of used graphics cards may continue to fall as Ethereum miners leave the industry. But the move to proof-of-stake is much more than just an energy-saving measure—it’s a major overhaul of the Ethereum network. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin believes the merger will lay the foundation for a series of future upgrades that will allow the network to handle a much larger volume of transactions in the coming years. However, critics worry that the new scheme could cause the Ethereum network to become too centralized – and therefore vulnerable to government regulation. Advertising

From proof of work to proof of bet

At a high level of abstraction, here’s how any blockchain works: Someone on the network proposes a block containing a list of recent transactions. Other network participants then verify that the block follows the network rules. If a sufficient number of other network participants accept the block, it becomes the “official” next block in the chain. As long as most network participants are honest, users can be confident that transactions accepted by the majority of the network will not be revoked or modified later. The big challenge for any blockchain project is to prevent a malicious party from creating multiple puppet accounts to “stuff the ballot box”, outvoting honest participants and thus tampering with previous transactions. The big insight of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto—the one who made bitcoin possible—was that this problem could be solved using the “one hash, one vote” principle. On the bitcoin network, whoever has the most computing power—specifically, the ability to calculate SHA-256 hashes—has the most influence over the blocks added to the blockchain. Since honest miners have more hashing power than malicious miners, users can be confident in the integrity of the blockchain — and therefore the integrity of payments made using the bitcoin network. (Check out our bitcoin walkthrough for details on how it works.) When Vitalik Buterin launched Ethereum in 2015, he used a variation of Nakamoto’s scheme. Up until that point, bitcoin mining was already dominated by specialized silicon optimized to compute huge numbers of SHA-256 hashes, locking ordinary bitcoiners out of the mining game. So Buterin developed a new mining algorithm designed to be “memory-hard” – and therefore difficult to speed up with custom hardware. As a result, Ethereum mining is still largely performed using off-the-shelf graphics cards, allowing ordinary Ethereum users to participate. But the economics of the two networks are essentially similar. As the values ​​of bitcoin and ether have risen, it has become profitable for people to spend more and more money mining hardware—and electricity—to create new coins. While this has made the grids safer, it also means that both grids are consuming astronomical amounts of electricity and therefore driving more and more carbon emissions. The bitcoin and Ethereum communities have responded to this issue very differently. Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from public view in 2011. In his absence, bitcoin culture has become increasingly conservative. Many bitcoiners strongly oppose changing the bitcoin mining system, fearing that the changes could open the door to centralization and eventual government control. As a result, bitcoin is unlikely to move away from proof of work in the foreseeable future.

title: “The Ethereum Merge Is Going To Put Every Ether Miner Out Of Work Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-19” author: “Lisa Disher”

In a few weeks, Ethereum is expected to undergo the most significant change in its seven-year history. Until now, the Ethereum blockchain has been secured using a method called “proof of work,” which consumes more electricity than the entire nation of Belgium. Next month’s switch to a new method called “proof of stake” is expected to reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption by 1,000. The stakes are high. A bad transition could mean chaos for the many crypto projects built on top of Ethereum. A smooth transition would be the culmination of years of careful planning by Ethereum’s core developers. Over the past year, developers have repeatedly pushed back the date of “The Merge” to give themselves more time to prepare. They completed a final dress rehearsal on August 10, paving the way to make the switch in mid-September. The most immediate consequence of a successful Merger will be putting the world’s Ethereum miners out of work. Over the past seven years, thousands of people have bought high-end graphics cards to help maintain the Ethereum blockchain and earn newly created ether in the process. The new system for updating the Ethereum blockchain doesn’t require the same kind of equipment — or the huge electricity bill that comes with it. Thus, the price of used graphics cards may continue to fall as Ethereum miners leave the industry. But the move to proof-of-stake is much more than just an energy-saving measure—it’s a major overhaul of the Ethereum network. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin believes the merger will lay the foundation for a series of future upgrades that will allow the network to handle a much larger volume of transactions in the coming years. However, critics worry that the new scheme could cause the Ethereum network to become too centralized – and therefore vulnerable to government regulation. Advertising

From proof of work to proof of bet

At a high level of abstraction, here’s how any blockchain works: Someone on the network proposes a block containing a list of recent transactions. Other network participants then verify that the block follows the network rules. If a sufficient number of other network participants accept the block, it becomes the “official” next block in the chain. As long as most network participants are honest, users can be confident that transactions accepted by the majority of the network will not be revoked or modified later. The big challenge for any blockchain project is to prevent a malicious party from creating multiple puppet accounts to “stuff the ballot box”, outvoting honest participants and thus tampering with previous transactions. The big insight of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto—the one who made bitcoin possible—was that this problem could be solved using the “one hash, one vote” principle. On the bitcoin network, whoever has the most computing power—specifically, the ability to calculate SHA-256 hashes—has the most influence over the blocks added to the blockchain. Since honest miners have more hashing power than malicious miners, users can be confident in the integrity of the blockchain — and therefore the integrity of payments made using the bitcoin network. (Check out our bitcoin walkthrough for details on how it works.) When Vitalik Buterin launched Ethereum in 2015, he used a variation of Nakamoto’s scheme. Up until that point, bitcoin mining was already dominated by specialized silicon optimized to compute huge numbers of SHA-256 hashes, locking ordinary bitcoiners out of the mining game. So Buterin developed a new mining algorithm designed to be “memory-hard” – and therefore difficult to speed up with custom hardware. As a result, Ethereum mining is still largely performed using off-the-shelf graphics cards, allowing ordinary Ethereum users to participate. But the economics of the two networks are essentially similar. As the values ​​of bitcoin and ether have risen, it has become profitable for people to spend more and more money mining hardware—and electricity—to create new coins. While this has made the grids safer, it also means that both grids are consuming astronomical amounts of electricity and therefore driving more and more carbon emissions. The bitcoin and Ethereum communities have responded to this issue very differently. Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared from public view in 2011. In his absence, bitcoin culture has become increasingly conservative. Many bitcoiners strongly oppose changing the bitcoin mining system, fearing that the changes could open the door to centralization and eventual government control. As a result, bitcoin is unlikely to move away from proof of work in the foreseeable future.