A researcher estimates that the energy consumption of the Ethereum blockchain will decrease by 99% thanks to Proof-of-Stake and ETH 2.0.
Ethereum has been migrating since December 2020. The blockchain is gradually abandoning its Proof-Of-Work consensus, also operated by Bitcoin, to switch to Proof-of-Stake.
This migration will allow Ethereum 2.0 to reduce congestion and the rampant increase in transaction prices. It also opens up the development of staking on Ethereum, and therefore passive income.
But these are not the only advantages that will ultimately benefit Ethereum 2.0. Another profit is taking its full interest as Bitcoin is criticized for its excessive energy consumption. ETH 2.0 also means big savings.
According to a researcher, Carl Beekhuizen, Ethereum version 2 will result in a 99% reduction in power consumption compared to the current grid. "According to my (very conservative) calculations, Ethereum will experience a reduction of more than 99.95% in its energy consumption after the merger," said the Ethereum Foundation researcher.
Ethereum is not the most consuming blockchain today. This title goes to Bitcoin with 707 KWh per transaction. For comparison, consumption is 0.0079 KWh per transaction for XRP.
With 62.56 KWh, Ethereum is well beyond. And this is explained by the use of Proof-of-Work. Overall, Beekhuizen therefore estimates ETH consumption at 2.62 megawatts. This is equivalent to the energy consumed by a US city of 2,100 homes.
The energy-hungry Bitcoin ogre
By switching to PoS, Ethereum is therefore taking care of its carbon footprint, responding to a real environmental concern. A transaction on ETH 2.0 will be equivalent to “about 20 minutes of television”.
This is still a lot, but significantly less than for Ethereum. Each transaction consumes as much as a household over 2.8 days. But in this area, Bitcoin does even worse with 38 days of household consumption.
This is all the more reason for Ethereum to accelerate its migration to Proof-of-Stake. This will take some time, however, over a year at least. However, users are already responding.
At the end of April, the total amount of Ethereum (ETH) staking on ETH 2.0 exceeded four million tokens. Cardano and Polkadot remain the leaders in staking. But Ethereum skyrockets and ranks 4th.