According to the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum is looking to shift to a proof-of-stake model within the coming months. This will bring some major changes to how the cryptocurrency operates fundamentally. This change will allow Ethereum to move away from using GPU mining for the currency which may be good news for gamers.
In its current state, Ethereum uses proof-of-work to shift transactions and generate new Ether, which is the currency used on the Ethereum network. Proof-of-work requires lots and lots of computational power to operate, much the same way as Bitcoin does, but while Bitcoin is largely powered by application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), Ethereum is powered almost exclusively by graphics cards.
Changing to the Proof-of-Stake method will cut the requirement for GPUs. Instead, the very network itself will verify transactions, or blocks, according to their stake in Ethereum. The system remains secure because the wealth of Ether in the world has already been distributed across millions of people.
Proof-of-stake would cut the requirement for GPU mining, which means less demand for cards and less power sapped from the limited resource that is planet Earth. Carl Beekhuizen of Ethereum Foundation said the following about this move.
“Ethereum will be completing the transition to Proof-of-Stake in the upcoming months which brings a myriad of improvements that have been theorized for years. But now that the Beacon chain has been running for a few months, we can actually dig into the numbers. One area that we’re excited to explore involves new energy-use estimates, as we end the process of expending a country’s worth of energy on consensus.”
Ethereum has been eyeing up a Proof-of-Stake concept for years now. Proof-of-stake, if successful, would cut Ethereum’s power use by up to 99.95%, the foundation claims. We will have to wait and see when Ethereum moves to Proof of Stake and what effect it has on the crypto mining communities.
