The importance of Merge
Because the blockchains they most heavily rely on use energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus processes, NFTs have a longstanding reputation for being environmentally destructive. To add blocks to the chain in this system, computers in the blockchain network must carry out difficult calculations with a strong cryptographic foundation.
PoW consensus, which is designed to use a lot of energy, is one way to keep the blockchain network safe and stop anyone from changing the public ledger that is the blockchain. Before today, the amount of energy Bitcoin and Ethereum used together was somewhere between what Italy and the UK use in a year. But it’s important to keep things in perspective, as Bitcoin’s energy needs, which are the biggest environmental problem in the blockchain space, don’t even come close to what Google, Apple, and Amazon need to run their data centers.
Since Ethereum merged, its blockchain is almost no longer on that map. Even though it will take time to figure out how much energy its new PoS system actually uses, both Ethereum developers and independent blockchain experts predict a drop of between 99.5 and 99.99 percent. That’s thousands of times less energy used, which is a huge win for Web3 as it moves forward.
What comes next?
Attend to the fork. Not everyone is pleased with Ethereum’s merger because it may result in thousands of cryptocurrency miners losing their jobs, which kept its PoW system operational. Recently, groups of miners have made a lot of noise about forking (splitting) the network and continuing a PoW-powered Ethereum blockchain. One such group is PoW-powered Ethereum blockchain (called ETHW). Within 24 hours after the merger, the gang intends to fork the network, as it has stated.
They might duplicate digital assets from the official Ethereum chain if they do (up until the moment of the fork). Due to the blockchain’s decentralized character, neither ETH nor NFTs can be declared invalid by a governing body. There is a consensus that the assets on that chain will continue to be legitimate because the majority of Web3 organizations and residents intend to follow Ethereum as it transitions to PoS.
Be on the lookout for bad people trying to sell off assets from the forked chain or trying to tell you that you have additional ETH on the network that they can help you sell. To “update” or “sync up” with the new version of the Ethereum blockchain, you don’t get to do anything with your ETH or NFTs.
