Ethereum has completed an important long-awaited upgrade to its system – The Merge. It involves the transition of the altcoin from the Proof-of-Work protocol to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). This means that now the security of the blockchain will be provided not by miners, but by validators – users who have deposited and blocked their share of coins (stacking). The main purpose of the update is to reduce the problems associated with the growth of the users number. The hard fork is aimed at increasing the speed, efficiency and scalability of the cryptocurrency network so that it can process more transactions and provide a higher level of protection. The Merge has been in preparation for six years, and many consider it an important milestone in the history of cryptocurrency due to the potential material and ideological consequences. The update should show that a decentralized and public network can work in the most energy efficient way. In addition, the transition to a new environmentally friendly Proof-of-Stake model will lead to a reduction in the impact on the environment. The new protocol will consume 99.95% less energy than the current mining model. Moreover, the transition of Ethereum to the Proof-of-Stake concept does not involve the use of video cards for mining. And this will lead to a further reduction in prices for graphics accelerators.
