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Ethereum is moving to proof of stake, will hopefully solve that problem.

viraptor 5y ago
Yes, but not yet and we're not 100% sure it will actually happen or will retain a lot of users. So if you care about computing efficiency, taking crypto (even ETH) now is a weird choice.
- 0x64 5y ago
  1. It’s already live on the PoS beacon chain, and has been since December 2020. 2. The specs for the transition are ready and it’ll happen next year. Target is before June. First long-lived Merge testnet goes live next month.
  - viraptor 5y ago
    Yes, there's a live test. So as mentioned before: we don't know if it will happen for real transactions, if a meaningful number of people will accept it, and when will it happen. (It's likely, but still months away)
    - 0x64 5y ago
      It's not a test chain, it's _the_ PoS chain that will be transitioned to. It's running on real Ether, over $30b worth of it. You're incredibly out of touch.
      - viraptor 5y ago
        Sure, that chain is the target for the merge and it's running with real Ether. But it's still a test. Right now if PoS nodes say a transaction exists but PoW say it doesn't... then for all practical purposes it doesn't exist.
saila 5y ago
Someone recently told me that proof of stake is less energy intensive than proof of work, but it’s still pretty energy intensive.
- 0x64 5y ago
  Even if you assume 100 watts of power per validator, it’s a >99% reduction in energy consumption. In reality, the average power consumption per validator is probably closer to 1–20 watts due to the fact that additional validator don’t stress an existing system effectively at all.
  - saila 5y ago
    Reading up on it some more, it does sound significantly less resource intensive, but it also sounds like migration from PoW to PoS is rather difficult and has some technical disadvantages. Is Bitcoin ever likely to migrate? If not, then it seems kind of moot, but perhaps new PoS players will come along and take over the market?
xdennis 5y ago
Ethereum has been moving to proof of stake since forever... Ethereum was released in 2015. The first PoS cryptocurrency (Peercoin) was released in 2012.

Yes, but not yet and we're not 100% sure it will actually happen or will retain a lot of users. So if you care about computing efficiency, taking crypto (even ETH) now is a weird choice.

0x64 5y ago
1. It’s already live on the PoS beacon chain, and has been since December 2020. 2. The specs for the transition are ready and it’ll happen next year. Target is before June. First long-lived Merge testnet goes live next month.
- viraptor 5y ago
  Yes, there's a live test. So as mentioned before: we don't know if it will happen for real transactions, if a meaningful number of people will accept it, and when will it happen. (It's likely, but still months away)
  - 0x64 5y ago
    It's not a test chain, it's _the_ PoS chain that will be transitioned to. It's running on real Ether, over $30b worth of it. You're incredibly out of touch.
    - viraptor 5y ago
      Sure, that chain is the target for the merge and it's running with real Ether. But it's still a test. Right now if PoS nodes say a transaction exists but PoW say it doesn't... then for all practical purposes it doesn't exist.

saila 5y ago

Someone recently told me that proof of stake is less energy intensive than proof of work, but it’s still pretty energy intensive.

0x64 5y ago
Even if you assume 100 watts of power per validator, it’s a >99% reduction in energy consumption. In reality, the average power consumption per validator is probably closer to 1–20 watts due to the fact that additional validator don’t stress an existing system effectively at all.
- saila 5y ago
  Reading up on it some more, it does sound significantly less resource intensive, but it also sounds like migration from PoW to PoS is rather difficult and has some technical disadvantages. Is Bitcoin ever likely to migrate? If not, then it seems kind of moot, but perhaps new PoS players will come along and take over the market?

xdennis 5y ago

Ethereum has been moving to proof of stake since forever... Ethereum was released in 2015. The first PoS cryptocurrency (Peercoin) was released in 2012.