Ethereum Merge anniversary — 99% energy drop but centralization fears linger
Energy use is down, and staking is up, but technical concerns still mark the road ahead for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. One year after its historic transition to proof of stake, Ethereum has seen a massive reduction in energy use and a marked improvement in access to the network, however, a number of technical issues still mark the road ahead. The Merge was executed on Sept. 15, 2022 — an event that saw the Ethereum mainnet merging with a separate proof-of-stake blockchain called the Beacon Chain. The most noticeable improvement to Ethereum post-merge was the seismic shift from an energy -guzzling proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to PoS, which saw the Ethereum network drastically reduce its total power consumption. According to data from The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the Ethereum network has seen its energy use drop more than 99.9% from the approximately 21 terawatt hours of electricity it used while running under PoW. The Merge has reduced...