Preparations for the move to PoS have been underway for several years. In doing so, the topic has become so popular that it has become surrounded by myths and misconceptions, which we have dispelled in a separate article. We recommend you to read it to get a better understanding of the update.


Ethereum moved to PoS

Today, the Ethereum network created its first block under the PoS consensus algorithm. It was block number 15537394 and it was rewarded with as much as 45 ETH, which is the equivalent of 73 thousand dollars at today’s rate.

Award for the first block in the PoS based Etherium network

The block was mined at 09:42:59, but that didn’t yet mean the success of the update. The developers needed to monitor the network and make sure it was working properly. As a result, seventeen minutes later, the creator of Etherium, Vitalik Buterin, published a tweet. In it, he confirmed that the blockchain update went smoothly. Here’s his rejoinder.

The finalisation has taken place. Happy merger, everyone. This is a very important moment for the Etherium ecosystem. Everyone who had a hand in this update today should be proud of what is happening.

Report on the activation of PoS on the Etherium network

The information was also confirmed by the developer of Etherium, Tim Beiko. Here is his rejoinder.

All is well, everything has taken place. The merger has taken place. Shit. Great job guys!

He also added a screenshot of the finalised network checkpoint, which signifies the fact that the update was successful.

Message about the finalised checkpoint in the Etherium network

Now we need to get into the details of the update and its impact on the cryptocurrency network with its users.

Etherium can no longer be mined

The most notable difference of the updated network is the absence of miners, which are now replaced by validators. Accordingly, it is no longer possible to earn ETH using video cards.

This can be seen at the mining pools. For example, 2Miners pool not so long ago had more than 100 thousand people mining ETH. Now Etherium is not on the list of popular cryptocurrencies, and miners are actively switching to other coins.

At the moment, the most popular coin among pool miners is Ethereum Classic. ETC is being mined by almost 22,000 people.

The most popular cryptocurrencies on 2Miners pool


Overall, the disappearance of ETH from the available cryptocurrencies for mining is a minor problem. There are plenty of other coins to mine: we are talking about Ravencoin, Ergo, Monero and so on. We have published a list of alternatives for mining in this article.


Reduced Etherium issuance. There are fewer new Ethers

In the first PoS-based block already mentioned, the reward was 45 ETH, but this figure is much higher than the norm. If you look at a more recent block, you can see a reward of 0.034267217668509841 ETH, for example.

Low reward for blocks in the PoS-based Ethereum network

This is a predictable change, as issuance on the PoS-based Ethereum network is down 90 per cent compared to PoW-based blockchain due to lower rewards. And because coin flaring persists, it means ETH as an asset is becoming deflationary as well. That is, fewer new ethers will be created than destroyed.

For the sake of clarity, here is this graph. The second indicator, called Supply Growth, shows that after the merger, the total number of ethers in circulation will decrease by 2.9 percent per year. Naturally, the final figure may be different, but this is the overall logic.

ETH deflation rate after network upgrade to PoS

By the way, the Ultrasound Money platform shows the savings in the creation of new ETH provided by the transition of the Etherium blockchain to PoS, and it does so live. The screenshot below shows that since the introduction of PoS, 199 fewer ETH have already been created on the blockchain than would have been generated on the PoW network.

Difference in ether issuance after the blockchain’s transition to PoS

Reduced power consumption of the Ethereum blockchain

Because the network now does not require video cards, the power consumption of the blockchain has become significantly lower. As noted today by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, who was quoted by blockchain researcher Justin Drake, Eth’s transition to PoS will reduce power consumption globally by 2 per cent.

The day before, it became apparent that fans of this network would be focusing specifically on reducing the energy consumption of Ethirium and its greater “greenness” in terms of the environment. In particular, representatives of the development team shared a comparison of BTC and ETH mining power consumption with YouTube and Netflix platforms, gold mining, the gaming industry and PayPal. In addition, the Eth network’s PoS costs can be seen here on the right, which are much lower than all other rankings.

Levels of electricity consumption by different niches of human activity

As previously noted by project representatives, Eth on PoS consumes 99.95 percent less electricity than a PoW network.

On top of that, the blockchain has been more stable so far. In the first 100 blocks since the merger, only one block has been missed on the network. As Vitalik Buterin noted, this is because fewer blocks are facing capacity limits. And so far, the number of fully populated blocks has dropped from 20 percent to about 10 percent.

Here’s a graph that shows Ethereum’s transition to PoS.

Stability of the PoS-based Ethereum network

What will happen to Etherium after PoS

In the end, the developers met their goal and successfully migrated the blockchain to the new consensus algorithm. From now on, Etherium is a much greener network, and ETH itself can essentially be considered a deflationary asset.

Obviously, such a massive change for the world-renowned cryptocurrency will affect other popular PoS projects like Solana, Avalanche and others. Well, the developers of Etherium should move on to implement other important innovations like sharding, which this time will really impact the level of commissions on the network.

Look for more interesting stuff in our millionaires cryptochat. There we will talk about other topics related to blockchain and decentralisation.