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Ethereum icon image: Randomly selected validators now guarantee that things are going right in the Ethereum blockchain
Photo: DADO RUVIC / REUTERS
Ether, the second most important cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, was switched to comparatively energy-saving operation with a comprehensive software update on Thursday.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, the adjustment of the consensus or hedging process for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, which has been planned for years, will reduce electricity requirements by 99.95 percent.
The Ethereum blockchain is a publicly accessible database that stores and verifies information and transactions in a cryptographically secure manner.
Ether is the name of the cryptocurrency that is exchanged via the Ethereum blockchain.
It ranks second in the crypto world behind Bitcoin in terms of overall value.
In order to validate transactions on the blockchain in a forgery-proof manner, the "Proof of Work" procedure has been used with Ethereum - as with Bitcoin.
Complicated cryptographic puzzles have to be solved and a lot of electricity is consumed.
With the so-called “merge” – Ethereum has now switched to the “Proof of Stake” (PoS) process, which only consumes a fraction of the electricity.
With this alternative consensus procedure, the correctness of the blockchain entries is no longer checked in a completely decentralized manner (and therefore energy-consuming), but by so-called randomly selected validators.
With part of their crypto savings, they guarantee that things are going right on the network and receive a reward for doing so: Every time a transaction has to be validated, a participant (»staker«) is selected from a lottery pot to verify the exchange and get new digital coins in return.
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The crypto industry recognizes several advantages in the "merge".
On »btc-echo.de«, for example, it is said that since large parts of the trade in NFTs (non-fungible tokens) also take place on the Ethereum blockchain, its environmental balance also improves.
In addition, the daily amount of ether is reduced from 13,000 ETH to 1600, which could have a beneficial effect on the price development.
Not all "miners" went along with the changeover
The Frankfurt economist Philipp Sandner, one of the leading blockchain experts in Germany, told the dpa news agency that with every hour that passes, the risk of the “merge” failing becomes smaller.
"It will only be seen in a few hours or even days whether technical problems - up to uncontrolled spin-offs or the standstill of the network - have arisen."
Not all players who have previously operated the Ethereum blockchain as "miners" have participated in the changeover.
A spokesman for the Ethereum Foundation explained that the proportion of conversion refusers was much lower than feared.
The crypto industry is now eagerly awaiting how the exchange rate of the Ethereum coin Ether will develop against the US dollar and other conventional currencies after the »merge«.
Immediately before and after the changeover, most exchanges had suspended trading in ether.
pbe/dpa