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The Ethereum merge is done

coindesk.com

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Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#121

Post by solumos »

colesantiago wrote: post #62

This doesn't really change anything, I still cannot find any legitimate use cases for blockchain, Proof of Stake or not. I would happy to be proven wrong, but this is extremely rare as I can't find any legitimate actual useful use case since Bitcoin and Ethereum's existence.

the easiest use case to grok (and one that's being used right now) is a near-instant global settlement layer

e.g. startups today are able to accept funds in USDC[0] without the hassle + cost of sending/receiving a wire transfer or waiting up to 2 weeks for an ACH to clear.

Another interesting use case is tracking provenance for physical goods.

e.g. the ownership history of a bottle of whiskey[1] or wine[2]

[0] - https://help.venture.angel.co/hc/en-us/articles/682949304692...

[1] - https://whiskeyraiders.com/bourbon/justins-house-bourbon-bax...

[2] - https://www.decanter.com/premium/spotlight-on-blockchain-win...

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#122

Post by Gigachad »

Shorel wrote: post #50
bambataa wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do find it interesting that people hate on crypto for its energy consumption but ignore all the other wasteful computation.

No one will ever say anything bad about game consoles, which consume much more electricity than cryptocurrencies =)

Game consoles provide utility.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#123

Post by geysersam »

miguelmota wrote: post #92
colesantiago wrote: post #62

This doesn't really change anything, I still cannot find any legitimate use cases for blockchain, Proof of Stake or not. I would happy to be proven wrong, but this is extremely rare as I can't find any legitimate actual useful use case since Bitcoin and Ethereum's existence.

> I still cannot find any legitimate use cases for blockchain Blockchains solve the double-spend problem. Allows for scarcity in the digital realm. Ethereum is a platform for decentralized finance, anyone can borderlessly lend and borrow in seconds. Endless possibilities.

> allows for scarcity

Sounds great...

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#124

Post by presentation »

> “Proof-of-stake is like running an app on your MacBook,” he said. “It's like running Slack. It's like running Google Chrome or running Netflix. Obviously, your MacBook plugs into the wall and uses electricity to run. But no one thinks about the environmental impact of running Slack, right?”

People do think about that. But definitely an improvement!

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#125

Post by jll29 »

lmarcos wrote: post #28

> The Merge is one of the largest technological events in the industry to date. I feel kinda ashamed. I work in the IT industry and I claim to have knowledge about ("good") software engineering practices, distributed systems, compilers, algorithms, etc. Nevertheless, I didn't understand a word of what the article is saying. Could you recommend serious references (preferably books and not random blogs) I could read to…

Read 'Mastering Ethereum' https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Ethereum-Building-Smart-Con...

The short of it is:

- The block chain is a distributed ledger database, where all peers hold a full copy to avoid manipulation (faking an entry is only possible by controlling >50% of machines in this peer-to-peer network).

- Spending money is implemented by adding a transactional record to the blockchain ledger at the end saying X amount moved from account A to B. A block is like a page in a paper ledger and they are appended with cryptographic hashes to avoid improper interference.

- Ethereum supports smart contracts, which are little scripts in a language called Solidity. So you can implement legally binding (and unstoppable) contracts along the lines of "if (condition) then (pay some money to someone)". Executing smart contracts cost a little bit of money. All Ethereum nodes collectively implement a distributed VM, and that money (called "gas") is the incentive to keep the network running. Smart contracts are highly interesting, and they have applications far beyond electronic currencies. For example, we played with implementing electronic rights management (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-36691-9_... - which turned out to be less than ideal due to a stack size limit in the current Ethereum VM, but hey).

- Whenever a new block (page in the ledger) needs to be created because the previous one is full, a randomized alg. determines who is permitted to do that ("mining"). The old process (proof of work) was environmentally a disaster (it still is for the Bitcoin ecosystem), which is why the Ethereum people implemented a smarter method (proof of stake - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_stake).

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#126

Post by worldsayshi »

scambier wrote: post #15
JonathanBeuys wrote: post #6

It worked. And it reduces the world's energy bill by 0.5%: https://twitter.com/JonathanBeuys/status/1570305323629527046 I feel a great disturbance in the force. As if a million miners cried out all at once and then were suddenly silenced.

Wait, the Ethereum blockchain alone was consuming 0.5% of the world's total energy?

I wonder if there is some very surprised power plant technicians out there right now scratching their heads because they didn't get the memo.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#127

Post by ollifi »

Barrin92 wrote: post #20
scambier wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, the Ethereum blockchain alone was consuming 0.5% of the world's total energy?

usual comparison was that the energy consumption is comparable to nations like the Netherlands or Finland, so seems about right.

There is lot of talk and debate about building wind, nuclear doing the green transition etc. in Finland. I guess like in every country. Somehow it makes me sad that group of open source developers could do more today than we ever can to help the planet no matter how much we scale back.

Although they built the hell machine in the first place, so maybe better if they would not have ever done anything.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#128

Post by cowtools »

SilverBirch wrote: post #115

There are two interesting things I want to watch from this. The first is I'm interested to see what kind of bull run ETH goes on. The merge has been incredibly long coming, it has huge risks and I think that puts downward pressure on price, you really don't want to be doing stuff in ETH at the moment because there's a fairly good chance something goes wrong, someone stealds $XBn and runs off and the Ethereum guys go…

>So as that risk dissipates I would expect a decent price run.

The risk you're describing is a social-political one. As long as the users do not fork with the etherium developers, that will not happen. Change to PoS has nothing to do with it.

I look forward to the increased GPU supply.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#130

Post by betwixthewires »

mrpopo wrote: post #48
bambataa wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do find it interesting that people hate on crypto for its energy consumption but ignore all the other wasteful computation.

Crypto has a far lower ratio on utility/speculation than other wasteful computations. Deep learning is changing the world in many visible ways (with a whole lot of speculation regardless).

Your bias shines through here.

What visible ways? Machine generated photographs? About as useful as NFTs...

I can, right now, send liquid assets to any human being on the planet with an internet connection without asking a financial institution, government, bank, payment processor or phone company for permission. That's utility, that's changing the world in a visible way.

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