Ethereum developer says proof of stake "Merge" is in final testing

Daniel Sims

Daniel Sims

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Why it matters: Last month, PC gamers and crypto enthusiasts learned they would have to wait a bit longer for Ethereum to switch to proof-of-stake. Now, developers have a new date for "the Merge," which should make the cryptocurrency use less energy and no longer require PC graphics cards for mining.

At a Web3 event this week, a core Ethereum developer said he expects the cryptocurrency to move from its current proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake in August. The so-called "Merge" will finish final testing sometime in the next several weeks. Previously, developers expected the switch to happen in June, but a developer confirmed a delay last month. Hopefully, there isn't another.

Moving to proof-of-stake is supposed to address a couple of cryptocurrency's most significant issues with critics. It should reduce Ethereum's carbon footprint and ease the supply of GPUs that miners were buying up under proof-of-work.

Whatever happens with Ethereum, the GPU crisis may already be ending. Painfully inflated pricing over a year has finally been falling back to Earth recently. Earlier this month, a crash wiped about a year's worth of value off Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, further altering the profit margins for miners.

Hopefully, the Merge arrives in time to minimize the impact of mining on the latest generation of GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel when they launch throughout the second half of 2022.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94670-ethereum-developer-proof-stake-merge-final-testing.html

 
Ethereum is like the shop you send your car to, and then keep following up on with the assurance that they're "Working on it" and "just need to order a few parts" but it never gets fixed.

The excuses are getting a bit tiresome on their end, and all the more annoying seeing as they're otherwise content to sit on their first mover laurels while the rest of the crypto space goes blazing past them in terms of tech.
 
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winjer said:
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
We have heard this one so many times before.
Click to expand...

This is basically something they're keeping on their back pocket for when it crashes into GPUs not being profitable unless you outright steal energy and thus remove almost all miners from the network. People assume they give a !(#$ about the environment but if they did, they would have switched years ago. They only care about their own profits so the switch is designed to inject brand new interest into Eth once almost all value disappears.

Also while we're at it we should discuss how proof-of-stake won't actually reduce the "carbon footprint" of Ethereum. Sure it could make it so people mine more efficiently on less power, but guess what? Since the more you mine the more money you make, the incentive will almost instantly offset the power savings by most miners putting a lot more compute into the system anyway so let's stop pretending there's going to be any benefit besides a few gamers seeing a now very slight price decrease in used GPUs mostly of about 10-15% savings according to the last numbers but mostly nothing at all since the gamer demand for new GPUs next month (potentially) alone will make sure the prices don't actually go down to MSRP.
 
Dimitriid said:
This is basically something they're keeping on their back pocket for when it crashes into GPUs not being profitable unless you outright steal energy and thus remove almost all miners from the network. People assume they give a !(#$ about the environment but if they did, they would have switched years ago. They only care about their own profits so the switch is designed to inject brand new interest into Eth once almost all value disappears.

Also while we're at it we should discuss how proof-of-stake won't actually reduce the "carbon footprint" of Ethereum. Sure it could make it so people mine more efficiently on less power, but guess what? Since the more you mine the more money you make, the incentive will almost instantly offset the power savings by most miners putting a lot more compute into the system anyway so let's stop pretending there's going to be any benefit besides a few
Click to expand...

The halving reduces the work product 'over time' to 50% of what it was so that one weeks work for a particular machine extends to two weeks.

gamers seeing a now very slight price decrease in used GPUs mostly of about 10-15% savings according to the last numbers but mostly nothing at all since the gamer demand for new GPUs next month (potentially) alone will make sure the prices don't actually go down to MSRP.
Click to expand...

Only 2 billion graphics cards are in the hands of Johnny Ebay.
So yeah, that's going to happen too.
 
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terzaerian said:
Ethereum is like the shop you send your car to, and then keep following up on with the assurance that they're "Working on it" and "just need to order a few parts" but it never gets fixed.

The excuses are getting a bit tiresome on their end, and all the more annoying seeing as they're otherwise content to sit on their first mover laurels while the rest of the crypto space goes blazing past them in terms of tech.
Click to expand...
I agree with you, ETH tech is crap, but what about Bitcoin? The fact is, ironically, the crypto space is not driven by tech. It is driven by hype. There so much money invested into these early coins, that a new coin could come up tomorrow, with 1mil TPS, people will still mostly buy what they heard is best, Bitcoin and Ethereum. And Shiba Inu or some other random hyped sh!tcoin.
 
Lew Zealand said:
The RLM "Lightning Fast VCR Repair" of cryptocoins?
Click to expand...
Ha, not quite that malicious but perhaps equally as lazy.

AMDGeForceRX3090 said:
Surely miners will just move on to what ever else is the most profitable coin?
Click to expand...
Hopefully they'll grow up and buy dedicated ASICs and stop spending equivalent amounts on daisy-chained graphics cards. I've never begrudged their right to do so but I have wished they would so some restraint, or get an ASIC if they really wanted to go pro.

emmzo said:
I agree with you, ETH tech is crap, but what about Bitcoin? The fact is, ironically, the crypto space is not driven by tech. It is driven by hype. There so much money invested into these early coins, that a new coin could come up tomorrow, with 1mil TPS, people will still mostly buy what they heard is best, Bitcoin and Ethereum. And Shiba Inu or some other random hyped sh!tcoin.
Click to expand...
Bitcoin's developers have always been conservative by design, though. Ethereum blasted open the doors as they came on the scene promising to shake things up and move fast and break things and now they're starting to look just like BTC's devs, which seems to signal a convenient shift from this revolutionary "we're building the WORLD COMPUTER" to "Bitcoin, but with smart contracts".
 
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