Fresh figures on Bitcoin’s (BTC) energy consumption, efficiency and scalability serve to expose the banking sector while bathing the world's largest cryptocurrency in a new light. A research report published by Michel Khazzaka, an IT engineer, cryptographer and consultant, calculates that Bitcoin payments are a "million times more efficient" than the legacy financial system. Plus, the banking sector “uses 56 times more energy than Bitcoin.” The report compiles almost four years of research and suggests a new calculation for estimating Bitcoin's proof-of-work energy consumption. In an interview, Khazzaka told Cointelegraph: “Bitcoin Lightning, and Bitcoin, in general, are really great and …

Ethereum network developers have decided to delay the difficulty bomb, a major step leading up to the highly anticipated Merge upgrade for the layer-1 blockchain. They set the delay to two months in order to “be sure that we sanity check all the numbers before selecting an exact delay and deployment time,” according to core developer Tim Beiko in a Sunday tweet. In short, we agreed to the bomb delay. We were already over time, and want to be sure that we sanity check all the numbers before selecting an exact delay and deployment time, but we are aiming for …

What are the types of Bitcoin improvement proposals (BIPs)? There are three main kinds of BIPs: standard, informational and consensus BIPs. Standard BIPs They identify standards used by Bitcoin software like wallets or exchanges and aim at changing the protocol; therefore, they require consensus to be approved. For example, they might submit encoding methods for securing Bitcoin or are recommended in the case of interoperability, which means that wallets should be able to recognize and function with any Bitcoin address to be useful. Informational BIPs They have an informative purpose only. They offer general guidelines to the community but do …

The Carbon Bankroll Report was released on May 17 as a collaboration among the Climate Safe Lending Network, The Outdoor Policy Outfit and Bank FWD. The collaboration made it possible to calculate the emissions generated due to a company’s cash and investments, such as cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. The report revealed that for several large companies, such as Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Salesforce, the cash and investments are their largest source of emissions. The energy consumption of the flagship proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network, Bitcoin, has been a matter of debate in which the network and its participants, especially …

Another day, another environmental attack on proof-of-work (PoW) mining. A report shared by the Swedish central bank argued that energy-intensive Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency mining should be banned. The Swedish central bank, known as the Riksbank, is the oldest central bank in the world. In a damning report entitled, "Cryptocurrencies and their impact on financial stability,” the bank had a crack at PoW cryptocurrency mining. PoW mining employs energy-guzzling data centers that solve puzzles to secure blockchains. The report stated: “Recently, some extraction of crypto assets has been established in northern Sweden, where it consumes as much electricity as 200,000 …

The ever-raging debate around Bitcoin’s energy consumption has been re-ignited, with founding member of Ethereum Anthony Donofrio claiming that Bitcoin is using “way too much” energy. According to figures from Digiconomist, Bitcoin (BTC) currently uses 0.82% of the world’s power while Ethereum (ETH) uses 0.34%. Ethereum researcher Justin Drake posted the figures to his 56,000 followers that Donofrio retweeted, stating: If bitcoin is really using nearly 1% of the energy on earth that is way too much for a pet rock. https://t.co/CDL32jk5FF — Texture, PhD (@iamtexture) June 9, 2022 Ethereum proponents are attempting to take shots at Bitcoin while simultaneously …

The Ethereum blockchain recently completed a step toward the long-awaited upgrade that will improve the platform by switching to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. The Ropsten testnet successfully transitioned to PoS in what is dubbed a “dress rehearsal” for the Ethereum blockchain. Since the network uses the proof-of-work (PoW) mining model, which consumes a lot of electricity, the Ethereum platform is often criticized along with Bitcoin (BTC) over its environmental impact. With the shift to PoS, the energy issues will be addressed and the platform will become more scalable, being able to process more transactions per second. After Ropsten's transition, testnets …

An International Monetary Fund study on energy consumption has reveale the importance of design choices within the crypto ecosystem to build an environmentally friendly mainstream payment system. In the study, titled “Digital Currencies and Energy Consumption,” the IMF examines the energy consumption of crypto assets based on their distinct design elements to evaluate the ideal mechanism for developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Sharing the groundwork for policy discussions around the environmental impacts of digital currencies, the IMF recommends moving away from proof-of-work-based distributed ledger technology applications, adding: “In particular, Bitcoin, the best known application of this type, is estimated …

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has yet to publicly commit to signing a controversial bill that would ban proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining, instead noting that her team will be looking “very closely” at the proposal over the next few months. If she signs the bill into law, PoW crypto mining operations backed by fossil fuels would no longer be able to set up shop or renew existing licenses in the state of New York. Under the new regulations, only PoW operations backed 100% by renewable energy would be able to operate. The New York State Senate passed the bill on …

The Ropsten testnet on the Ethereum network is ready to set the stage for the “first dress rehearsal” of the Merge to adopt the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Core Ethereum developer Tim Beiko announced on Tuesday that a new Beacon Chain for Ropsten has been launched. It will serve as the precursor for the final test Merge, which is expected to be “around June 8th.” Ropsten Merge Announcement Ethereum's longest lived PoW testnet is moving to Proof of Stake! A new beacon chain has been launched today, and The Merge is expected around June 8th on the network. Node Operators: …

Cryptocurrencies represent significant potential for their ability to equalize the playing field. With this form of digital asset, anyone, regardless of their place of birth, has equal rights to participate in the financial market. Unfortunately, the ones that are believed to use these assets the most are coincidentally those who have the least heard voice when it comes to sharing their benefits — a sad reality since many in this target group live in developing nations. Therefore, with a properly designed economic system, the world might achieve tremendous wealth, effectively wiping out all the poverty in the world. The resulting …

One of the most popular Ethereum clients, OpenEthereum, has ended support for its software in preparation for the upcoming Ethereum Merge. OpenEthereum creates “clients” or software used to interact with the Ethereum network allowing anyone to create an Ethereum node to mine Ether (ETH), which is currently using a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism. In a Twitter thread, the OpenEthereum team explained that with the Merge approaching and the legacy codebase becoming “increasingly difficult to manage” due to its age, it was the right time to end support. OpenEthereum support has officially ended. The repo is now archived, and all maintenance …