Good news ! Ethereum miners will soon no longer need graphics cards

news hardware Good news ! Ethereum miners will soon no longer need graphics cards

The coming together of the event that will revolutionize Ethereum is imminent

For several months, Ethereum users have been impatient (or not) with the idea of ​​The Merge update. The second largest cryptocurrency, among others at the origin of the non-fungible tokens (NFT) phenomenon, has finally announced the schedule for the rollout of the long-awaited update.

According to Ethereum estimates, the merger should arrive in mid-September…

Behind this technical name lies a concept that will fundamentally change the use of this cryptocurrency and will have an impact on consumers of graphics cards. This innovation will shift the Ethereum blockchain from Proof-of-Work (POW) to Proof-of-Stake (POS)…

Ethereum: What is Proof of Work?

Since its inception in 2015, Ethereum has worked more or less like Bitcoin for exchange validation. Blockchain, the network architecture behind cryptocurrency, aims to digitize trust. To exercise this principle, it uses a validation system to allow person-to-person exchanges without going through an intermediary. At the moment, transactions on Ethereum are validated by proof-of-work. Exactly this system uses graphics cards.

Specifically, to secure and operate its network, Ethereum puts several miners in competition with each other and their computing power, represented by machines (graphics cards, ASICs, etc.). This process aims to validate the blocks and thus reward miners with ETH. Because of this, cryptocurrency consumes copious amounts of electricity. In addition, the blockchain is adapting to miners and they require increasingly powerful hardware, creating a significant amount of e-waste since the appearance of cryptocurrencies. For these reasons, cryptocurrencies are often singled out for their polluting aspect.

However, Ethereum has the solution to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its blockchain: proof-of-stake.

What is Proof of Stake?

Proof-of-Stake is a greener alternative to Proof-of-Work. This system replaces the mechanism based on computational strength with another based on actively using one’s treasury. Therefore, the Proof of Stake allows the holders of the asset in question (in this case, Ethereum) to use their capital instead of a graphics card to validate the blocks. To be precise, by using this system, a person will be able to mine Ethereum by putting their ETH in play.

This good news for gamers is also good news for the ecosystem, as consensus via Proof of Stake (PoS) is rightly seen as more environmentally friendly. Still, Ethereum miners might switch to another proof-of-work cryptocurrency like Ethereum classic to be profitable at the end of the month.