Ethereum Merge: Blockchain completes 'monumental' overhaul

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Leading cryptocurrency figures hailed on Thursday the completion of one of the biggest software upgrades the sector has ever attempted, an overhaul of the Ethereum blockchain aimed at reducing its massive energy consumption.

Developers had spent years working on an energy-efficient version of Ethereum, a digital ledger that underpins tens of billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies, digital tokens (NFTs), games and apps.

Ethereum is the second most important blockchain after bitcoin, but it has faced criticism for burning through more power each year than New Zealand.

"And we finalized!" tweeted Ethereum's co-creator Vitalik Buterin, calling it a "big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem".

Buterin quoted research claiming that the "merge", as developers have called the software upgrade, would reduce global electricity consumption by 0.2 percent.

Enthusiasts hope a more energy efficient Ethereum will spur wider adoption of blockchain technology, particularly for banks and financial firms to automate backend processes.

But so far the technology has been used largely to create speculative financial products.

And critics remain sceptical of the energy saving claims, pointing out that it is unclear how much energy the new system will need.

- Trading resumes -

Blockchain company Consensys called it a "monumental technological milestone" but the scale of the work and potential for glitches led several companies and major exchanges to halt trading during the merge process.

The biggest exchange, Binance, said on Thursday it had resumed trading in ether, the native currency of Ethereum, tweeting: "The Ethereum Merge is complete."

Ether was down slightly in early trading and has lost more than half of its value since