The Ethereum blockchain, the most important in the world of cryptocurrencies after that used for bitcoins, has succeeded in the technical change which should make it more efficient and less energy consuming, according to the main players in the operation on Thursday.
“And we have finalized! (…) All those who contributed to the success of the Merge (+ fusion +, the technical name of the mutation, editor’s note) can feel very proud today”, tweeted Vitalik Buterin, co-founder and tutelary figure of this blockchain.
The “Merge” consists of changing the mode of validation of operations on the “block chain”, a huge tamper-proof computer register.
Ether, the cryptocurrency directly linked to Ethereum, represents only around 20% of the total value of existing virtual currencies, second only to bitcoin (40%). But Ethereum has a much wider scope of applications than its competitor, as it serves as a medium for multiple uses, such as NFT exchanges.
In order to become less energy-intensive in a context of rapid growth, Ethereum has decided to move towards a less energy-consuming system. A risky operation, which has been compared by some to replacing a diesel engine with an electric motor on a moving vehicle.
After this “mutation” on Thursday, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Twitter that it was resuming trading on Ether.
Binance had precautionaryly suspended these exchanges before the operation, like most other cryptocurrency exchanges.
So far “everything has gone exactly as planned,” Simon Polrot, a blockchain specialist and former president of the Association for the Development of Digital Assets (ADAN), told AFP.