The day has finally come – the long-awaited Ethereum merge has just been completed. This means the Ethereum blockchain, which serves as the key pillar for most NFT projects and over 71 million wallets, will transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) system to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system. Here’s how Twitter reacted.
Twitter reacts to the long-awaited merge
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was the first to announce the finalisation of the Ethereum merge on Twitter. Marking this pivotal moment for Ethereum, he tweeted: “And we finalized! Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today,”.
In response to the Merge,@dub1d replied: “Never seen Vitalik look so excited, no surprise 🐼 well done all eth devs 🥳”
“Excited about The Merge! One of the coolest examples of sustained, ambitious, technically difficult open source development. Congratulations and good luck to @VitalikButerin and to the Ethereum community,” tweeted Stripe CEO @patrickc.
Others took the opportunity to discuss what the merge means, with @DaitoYoshi pointing out: “No one is talking about how The Merge will reduce the need for Solana by 99.5%.”
@jchervinsky also tweeted: “You don’t have to be an Etherean to be excited for the Merge. It’s an amazing achievement in the history of open-source software & one that will lay bare the hollowness of Web3 skeptics who used environmental concern trolling to disguise their hatred for crypto & now must pivot.”
The NFT influencer also points out that the merge will reduce Ethereum’s carbon emissions by more than 99 percent. Seeing that it is the most popular blockchain for NFTs, the merge will greatly impact the popularity of lesser known, eco-friendly blockchains like Solana.
Not surprisingly, the Ethereum merge hype also led some enthusiasts to make rash decisions. “Someone just paid 36 ETH in gas to mint this. The first minted NFT on proof of stake,” tweeted @CirrusNFT, alongside a photo of the minted NFT.
Why is the move to Proof of Stake so important?
The Ethereum merge is an essential step forward, as it eliminated the need for mining new blocks. This is because the network is now secured using validators and staked ETH.
According to Digiconomist’s Alex de Vries, Ethereum mining was equivalent to the carbon footprint of Switzerland. When talking about the merge, he said it translates to the electricity consumption of a country like Portugal vanishing overnight.
Undoubtedly, this has a massive impact on the environment. As a result, this will also change the discourse on NFTs and the environment. While Ethereum still faces challenges in terms of scaling, accommodating large volumes of transactions, and reducing gas fees, the merge will ease some concerns about NFTs and the environment.
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