According to the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI), Ethereum has managed to reduce its energy consumption by more than 99% after The Merge merger, which was successfully activated on September 15.
The current energy consumption of the Ethereum network, after having left block mining behind and starting a new path in Proof of Stake (PoS), is estimated around 2.600 megawatt hours (MW/h) per year. Likewise, the annualized carbon emissions of the PoS blockchain are close to 870 tons of CO2 (tCO2e).
Before The Merge merger, the network's energy consumption was around 22,8 million MW/h and its carbon footprint exceeded 11 million tons of CO2 per year, so the network has managed to significantly reduce its consumption energy and its environmental impact, achieving one of its main objectives, of being more efficient and sustainable, to guarantee a sustainable future for the blockchain industry.
Source: CCRI
All this data was published by the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) in its report of the month of September, titled “The Merge: Implications on the Electricity Consumption and Carbon Footprint of the Ethereum Network”.
In this report, the institute points out that the Ethereum merger is substantially improving the environmental sustainability of the blockchain network, reducing its energy consumption by 99,98% and its carbon emissions by 99,99%.
Ethereum, before and after The Merge
The arrival of The Merge merger stopped PoW block mining on Ethereum and gave way to PoS staking, making Ethereum a blockchain about 2.000 times more sustainable and efficient.
ConsenSys, which is part of the companies that support the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute, stated that this is the first time that a blockchain system of the importance of Ethereum changes drastically and eliminates its carbon footprint almost “overnight.”
The Proof of Stake consensus mechanism now used by Ethereum has reduced the network's energy requirements by almost 100% and, in turn, has reduced what was a major business expense for miners: energy costs. Now, in PoS, instead of addressing the cost of electricity, Ethereum validators must focus mainly on the investment of 32 ETH (about $42.700, currently) that is required to become a validator of this blockchain.
Source: ConsenSys
On the other hand, although The Merge has had no impact on the scalability of the network and, therefore, has not reduced its gas rates, the consensus protocol migration represents a radical change for the blockchain and the prepares for future updates, which focus on these goals of increasing scalability and security.
What comes next?
According to the roadmap shared by Vitalik Buterin in July of this year, others will come four important phases for the transformation of Ethereum. These new phases are The Surge, The Verge, The Purge y The Splurge, which will introduce the sharding to Ethereum, among other improvements, to increase its scalability and performance.
But before seeing any of these four phases arrive, Ethereum will receive the update Shanghai, which will determine the withdrawals of the ether staked in the new PoS network, which remains blocked for the moment. This update will also introduce changes to the object format. Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and other improvements that the developers will discuss in future meetings.
Shanghai will go live on Ethereum a few months after The Merge, so this update will likely arrive next year.
Continue reading: Ethereum's Merge could attract 1.000 billion users to Web3
