On the first day after the Merge, the decentralized finance (DeFi) community is settling into the seemingly uneventful transition of the Ethereum network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). However, it has yet to be seen the benefits that hard forks will bring to PoW supporters. So far, the most important contending networks in favor of the mining community, EthereumPoW and Ethereum Classic, have shown different outcomes post-Merge. A stumbling start The fledgling EthereumPoW started its debut with Twitter users reporting issues with accessing the network. The issues were confirmed to be the result of a hack to the network …

Post-Ethereum Merge proof-of-work (PoW) chain ETHW has moved to quell claims that it had suffered an on-chain replay attack over the weekend. Smart contract auditing firm BlockSec flagged what it described as a replay attack that took place on Sept. 16, in which attackers harvested ETHW tokens by replaying the call data of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) chain on the forked Ethereum PoW chain. According to BlockSec, the root cause of the exploit was due to the fact that the Omni cross-chain bridge on the ETHW chain used old chainID and was not correctly verifying the correct chainId of the cross-chain …

MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin (BTC) advocate Michael Saylor doubled down on his support for Bitcoin as he explained the issues related to transferring the value of physical properties such as gold, company stocks or equity and real estate during the Australia Crypto Convention. Speaking about the underlying proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, Saylor highlighted that Bitcoin is backed by $20 billion worth of proprietary mining hardware and $20 billion worth of energy. He then pointed out that traditional assets such as gold (in high quantity) and land are nearly impossible to carry forward across geographical boundaries, adding: “If you have a …

Analysis from Santiment indicates that 46.15% of Ethereum’s PoS nodes are controlled by only two addresses. Hours after the Merge, the first address has validated about 188 blocks or 28.97% of the nodes, and the second has validated 16.18%, or 105 blocks. On Twitter, the data became a controversial topic as users debated about the impact of the Merge on centralization for the largest network in the world. According to our #Ethereum Post Merge Inflation dashboard, 46.15% of the #proofofstake nodes for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new #blockchain blocks can be attributed to just two addresses. This heavy …

Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solana (Garga.eth) has shot down rumors that the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators have plans to launch a new NFT collection dubbed “Mecha Apes” by the end of the year. The rumors started swirling after Protos claimed to have obtained leaked documents detailing that Yuga Labs was looking at raising around $50 million from the sale of 100,000 tokenized land plots. After the news was reported via various outlets online, Garga.eth noted it was all “fake news” via Twitter on Sept. 16. fake news https://t.co/KVMaO18IaF — Garga.eth (@CryptoGarga) September 15, 2022 While the rumors have …

Meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) is now officially the second largest proof-of-work (PoW) crypto in terms of market cap, following the Ethereum network's proof-of-stake upgrade on Sept. 15. Bitcoin (BTC) of course remains miles ahead of Dogecoin’s market cap of $7.83 billion, though the well-followed memecoin is still comfortably ahead of the third place PoW cryptocurrency, Ethereum Classic (ETC) (with a market cap of $4.69 billion), Litecoin (LTC) ($4.01 billion) and Monero (XMR) ($2.65 billion). One Dogecoin fan appeared to be in disbelief of Dogecoin’s rise to become the second largest PoW cryptocurrency, stating “who would have thought that this would …

The shedding of Ethereum’s energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) system is expected to see Ether (ETH) “flow into the institutional world,” according to a number of fund managers and co-founders. On Sept. 15, Ethereum officially transitioned to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which is expected to cut energy consumption used by the network by 99.95%, according to the Ethereum Foundation. The upgrade effectively ended the need for the Ethereum network to rely on miners and energy-guzzling mining hardware to validate transactions and build new blocks, as these functions are now replaced by validators who “stake” their ETH. "The merge will reduce worldwide …

Transitioning the Ethereum blockchain from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has reduced its energy usage by more than 99% — and many climate activists have called for Bitcoin to follow suit. In a Thursday notice following the Merge, the United States-based Environmental Working Group, or EWG, announced it would be starting a $1-million campaign aimed at urging Bitcoin (BTC) to go green as opposed to using an “outdated protocol” like PoW. The announcement came amid environmental activity group Greenpeace launching a petition directly at Fidelity Investments to facilitate the transition to PoS. “Other cryptocurrency protocols have operated on efficient consensus mechanisms for …

Despite Ethereum’s historic transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, mining pools are increasingly signing up for mining on the upcoming proof-of-work (PoW) version of Ethereum. EthereumPoW, the community advocating for ETHPoW, or the PoW Ethereum version, has released a list of mining pools that are going to continue mining after the ETHW mainnet launch. According to EthereumPoW, some major Ethereum mining pools are going to continue mining despite Ethereum’s switch to the eco-friendly PoS consensus mechanism. At the time of writing, the list of ETHW mining pools composes a total of 19 various mining pools, including F2Pool, Poolin, AntPool, …

The Ethereum blockchain has successfully completed its shift away from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus following the merge of the Mainnet and the Beacon Chain. The Merge took place on Sep.15 as the network shifted to PoS seamlessly, seeing hardware-based miners replaced by validators that stake Ether (ETH) to process transactions, add new blocks and maintain the network. The most pertinent question in the cryptocurrency space is, what happens next? The Ethereum Foundation has always worked on a long roadmap of development milestones, and The Merge is no different. Happy birthday beacon chain! Here's an updated roadmap diagram for where …

There's a new Bitcoin (BTC) energy FUD in town: noise. In Sortland, a Norwegian municipality, locals are waging war on Bitcoin miners to thwart further BTC mining developments. Their latest protest against proof-of-work (PoW) mining is that it's loud. It’s not enough that Bitcoin miners in Sortland use 100% renewable energy sources, create jobs and even use waste heat from the PoW process to dry out timber and seaweed for local businesses; they must do so quietly. Kjetil Hove Pettersen, CEO at local KryptoVault, explained that it could be another case of media spin aiming at Bitcoin. He explained the …

The Ethereum Merge has officially taken place, marking the full transition of the network to proof-of-stake (PoS). On Sept. 15 at 06:44 UTC, the long-awaited Merge saw the merging of the Ethereum Mainnet execution layer and the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer at the Terminal Total Difficulty of 58750000000000000000000, meaning the network will no longer rely on a proof-of-work consensus mechanism. The Ethereum Foundation said the Merge will make the Ethereum network about 99.95% more energy efficient and will set the stage for future scaling solutions, including sharding. Speaking to Cointelegraph, StarkWare President and co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson that “the immediate importance …