Ethereum’s Software Revamp for Energy Efficiency Reaches Crucial Step in Stress Testing Process

Developers working on Ethereum blockchain’s software upgrade have reached a significant milestone in its testing process. Ethereum developer Marius Van Der Wijden called this a “huge success” in the process of revamping the blockchain and making it more energy efficient. Ethereum’s much-awaited upgrade is called ‘Merge’. The transformation is intended to change the way in which transactions are ordered on the Ethereum network, that has become prominent in the commercial space.

A so-called mainnet shadow fork was launched to stress-test ‘Merge’. The results of this test have come positive, with at least one bug discovered to be fixed.

Wijden posted about the development on Twitter.

Currently, Ethereum miners order transactions on the blockchain using large server farms that consume tonnes of electricity, and contributes to carbon emissions.

A single Ethereum transaction consumes as much electricity as an average US household uses in a workweek — and has a carbon footprint equivalent to 140,893 Visa credit card transactions or 10,595 hours of watching YouTube, a report by Fortune noted in July last year.

After the launch of the Merge upgrade, Ethereum transaction ordering will be done by so-called stakers, by using swaths of Ether in a system called ‘Proof of Stake’.

This is expected to reduce Ethereum’s power consumption by 99 percent, a Bloomberg report explained.

Developers are running extensive tests on the Ethereum revamp because decentralised finance apps reportedly worth over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,61,110 crore) are supported on the blockchain, and cannot be put in jeopardy.

Ether, the native token of Ethereum currently has a market cap exceeding $362 billion (roughly Rs. 27,62,004 crore) as per CoinMarketCap.