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

Ethereum’s much-awaited upgrade is called ‘Merge’ and will reduce the blockchain’s energy consumption by 99 percent.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 12 April 2022 13:59 IST

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

Photo Credit: Pixabay/ WorldSpectrum

Ether, the native token of Ethereum currently has a market cap exceeding $362 billion

Highlights

Release date of Ethereum’s ‘Merge’ update remains unclear
Developers currently running intensive tests
Mainnet shadow fork was launched to stress-test ‘Merge’

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.

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The mainnet shadow fork already found an issue we could've easily missed on the devnets. The default gas limit is set to 8 million, but miners voted it up to 30M. Since most validators would run with the default value, the gas limit would quickly drop
Fix:https://t.co/BbzMKUiHch
— MariusVanDerWijden (@vdWijden) April 11, 2022

BTW, the mainnet shadow fork was a huge success! Nethermind and Besu stopped at the transition, but a fix is being deployed for Nethermind that allows them to sync up. Geth and Erigon are progressing happily. All beacon chain clients are in agreement. https://t.co/Khn8oenqGa https://t.co/E099k5e3PM
— MariusVanDerWijden (@vdWijden) April 11, 2022

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.

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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.

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Further reading: Ethereum, Ether, Cryptocurrency, Upgrade, Merge

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More