A day after Ethereum’s historic transition to proof-of-stake, most of the crypto community is still buzzing with excitement following the successful merger .
At 06:42:42 UTC on September 15, the last Ethereum block using the old proof-of-work consensus mechanism was mined. It is replaced by an energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Many crypto enthusiasts and climate advocates around the world are excited about the positive impact it will have on the reputation and environment of cryptocurrencies.
Others are in awe of the technological feat of nonstop upgrading an entire blockchain network.
On Sept. 15, Uniswap Labs founder and CEO Hayden Adams told his 232,200 followers on Twitter that the reduction in Ethereum’s energy usage “will improve the public image of the Ethereum network” compared to its “entire history.” " Anything on it works better.
According to the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum's new PoS consensus mechanism will reduce the energy consumption of the entire network by 99.95%.
Adams believes that "people have greatly underestimated this aspect of mergers."
Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse tweeted that it was a "truly incredible technical feat," and NFT company Yuga Labs told its followers it was scaling Ethereum to its "first billion users." A big step forward.
Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX also congratulated , saying that Ethereum is the "OG of smart contracts" and has played a huge role in building the Web3 ecosystem.
Even the Twitter account behind Dogecoin, now the second-largest PoW cryptocurrency by market capitalization, offered “warm congratulations” to ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and everyone involved in the merger.
However, there are some who are skeptical of Ethereum’s new consensus mechanism.
Independent journalist Jordan Schachtel said the merger effectively transitioned ethereum into a "World Economic Forum (WEF) coin" that would "by design put all value and control in the hands of those at the top".
The Twitter account @Cardanians_io stated that the ethereum merger will not change its high transaction fees and scalability problems at all.
The account added that Cardano’s Vasil fork will improve the scalability of the Cardano network. “Ethereum is essentially catching up to Cardano,” the account shared.
Earlier this week, StarkWare president and co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson told Cointelegraph that the ethereum merger was “like a rocket launch” and that there was still some way to go.
Buterin said the merger is the first step in a five-part process that will eventually bring the smart contract blockchain into the "endgame" of ethereum's development.