Ethereum: End Mining With Graphics Cards – The Merge Completed
An important moment for cryptocurrency
After several months, Ethereum ‘s transition to the proof-of-stake model is a fact as of today. The so-called ‘The Merge’ has been successfully completed, completely changing the way the Ethereum blockchain works.
In summary, the new proof-of-stake mechanism eliminates the need for mining new blocks, since the network is now secured using validators and staked ETH. This means that mining with graphics cards is also a thing of the past . This is a very important development for the specific sector, since the majority of miners preferred Ethereum as the main currency to which they devoted their processing power.
Previously, the Ethereum blockchain was based on proof-of-work, a consensus mechanism that required computing resources from all decentralized nodes participating in the blockchain.
Today’s change will result in Ethereum becoming extremely greener, as the network’s energy consumption is reduced by 99.95% thanks to ‘The Merge’.
For the record, the transition began in December 2020, when Ethereum launched a then-separate proof-of-stake Beacon Chain, which ran alongside the main Ethereum blockchain. Then, on September 6, 2022, the so-called Bellatrix upgrade arrived, which started ‘The Merge’ itself. With this first upgrade, the community decided to switch the proof-of-work chain to the proof-of-stake chain once the Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) reached a certain value on the original Ethereum blockchain. This happened today at exactly 9:42am. (Greece time), starting the second part of the transition, the so-called Paris upgrade.
Now that the highly demanding and technically complex process is complete, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted:
And we’re done! Happy merging everyone. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merger happen should feel very proud.
How this affects Ethereum holders:
For holders of any amount of Ethereum practically nothing changes. Addresses, digital wallets and transactions will continue to work exactly as before , since all the changes are related to the behind-the-scenes technology.
