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Ethereum cuts annual electricity use by 99.9%

Since Ethereum switched to Proof of Stake, it has presented itself as an environmentally friendly blockchain.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
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Ethereum cuts annual electricity use by 99.9%

Since Ethereum has switched to Proof of Stake, it has presented itself as an environmentally friendly blockchain. Now numbers on energy use have been published.

The Proof of Stake mechanism of Ethereum uses only 0.0026 TWh/year for the entire global network.

The Ethereum Foundation commissioned an assessment institute to determine the network's energy consumption and CO2 footprint. From the institute’s analysis it shows an annual electricity consumption of 2,601 MWh, which corresponds to a carbon footprint of 870 tons of CO2. The annual electricity use is therefore reduced by more than 99.988 percent. The carbon footprint has also been dramatically reduced, from 11,016,000 to 870 tons of CO2.

"Figuratively speaking, this is like cutting emissions from the height of the Eiffel Tower down to a small plastic toy figure," the organization said. Under the name "The Merge" Ethereum switched in September from the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to Proof of Stake (PoS).

While PoW requires compute power to find new blocks, PoS achieves network consensus by staking cryptocurrency.

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