{"id":33714,"date":"2022-10-31T14:21:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T14:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=33714"},"modified":"2022-10-31T14:21:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T14:21:04","slug":"the-merge-brings-down-ethereums-network-power-consumption-by-over-99-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=33714","title":{"rendered":"The Merge brings down Ethereum\u2019s network power consumption by over 99.9%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-v-4b69a2fe=\"\">\n<p>The Merge, which is considered one of the most significant blockchain upgrades on Ethereum\u00a0to date, brought down the network\u2019s energy consumption by 99.9% immediately.<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 15, the Ethereum blockchain migrated from <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/blockchain-for-beginners\/proof-of-stake-vs-proof-of-work:-differences-explained\" rel=\"noopener\">proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS)<\/a> consensus mechanism in an effort to transition into a green blockchain. What followed was an immediate and steep drop in total energy consumption of the Ethereum network.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-10\/df79953e-f65b-43fe-a0e3-672b5e3c9707.png\" \/><figcaption style=\"text-align: center\"><em>The Ethereum Energy Consumption Index. Source:\u00a0digiconomist.net<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Before the Merge upgrade, in 2022, the energy consumption of Ethereum ranged between 46.31 terawatt hour (TWh) per year to 93.98 TWh per year. The lowest energy consumption for Ethereum was recorded on Dec. 26, 2019, at 4.75 TWh per year.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-10\/afd2a172-7eaf-4717-a16e-db5c7e898679.png\" \/><figcaption style=\"text-align: center\"><em>The estimated annual energy consumption in TWh\/yr for various industries. Source:\u00a0ethereum.org<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Starting from Sept. 15, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/the-ethereum-merge-is-completed-here-s-what-s-next\" rel=\"noopener\">the day of the Ethereum Merge<\/a>, Ethereum\u2019s energy dropped down by over 99.9% and continues to maintain low energy usage. As a result, the network\u2019s carbon footprint currently stands at 0.1 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) per year.<\/p>\n<p>When translated to single Ethereum transactions, the electrical consumption is as low as 0.03-kilowatt hour (kWh) and the carbon footprint stands at 0.01 kgCO2, which,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/digiconomist.net\/ethereum-energy-consumption\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according<\/a> to digiconomist, is equivalent to the energy used when watching two hours of YouTube.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/ethereum-sets-record-eth-short-liquidations-wiping-out-500-billion-in-2-days\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Ethereum sets record ETH short liquidations, wiping out $500 billion in 2 days<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite the celebrations around Ethereum\u2019s transition to PoS, community members raised concerns related to the blockchain\u2019s centralization and higher regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/ethereum-at-the-center-of-centralization-debate-as-sec-lays-claim\" rel=\"noopener\">centralization aspect became evident<\/a> right after the Merge, as 46.15% of the nodes for storing data, processing transactions and adding new blockchain blocks could be attributed to just two addresses.<\/p>\n<p>While Ethereum proponents claim that anyone with 32 Ether (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/ethereum-price\" rel=\"noopener\">ETH<\/a>) can become a validator, it is important to note that 32 ETH, or around $41,416, is not a small amount for a newbie or common trader.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/the-merge-brings-down-ethereum-s-network-power-consumption-by-over-99-9\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Merge, which is considered one of the most significant blockchain upgrades on Ethereum\u00a0to date, brought down the network\u2019s energy consumption by 99.9% immediately. On Sept. 15, the Ethereum blockchain migrated from proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism in an effort to transition into a green blockchain. What followed was an immediate and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[768,10197,1547,6265,175,1152],"class_list":["post-33714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethereum","tag-brings","tag-consumption","tag-ethereums","tag-merge","tag-network","tag-power"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1200_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjItMTAvNTQ5MDM1MzQtMDExYi00Mzg4LWE0ODAtODUxZTQ2YmMzMTgyLmpwZw.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33716,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33714\/revisions\/33716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}