After the Merge, Ethereum Network Energy Consumption Dropped By 99.9%

Ethereum Merge, one of the biggest Ethereum (ETH) technical updates, shifting ETH from a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism to Proof-of-Stake, has drastically reduced ETH energy consumption.

According to the data shared by digiconomist, after Ethereum Merge on September 15th, cryptocurrency’s energy consumption dropped by 99.99%.

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Before the Merge, in 2022, the energy consumption for Ethereum caught its peak. Ethereum energy consumption ranged from 46.31 terawatt hour (TWh) per year to 93.97 TWh per year. The lowest energy consumption was recorded on December 25th, 2019, with 4.75 TWh per year.

Currently, Ethereum’s energy consumption equals 0.01 TWh per year, leaving a carbon footprint of 0.1 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) per year. 

Moreover, after the Ethereum Merge, a single Ethereum transaction is responsible for a 0.03-kilowatt hour (kWh), leaving a 0.01 kgCO2 carbon footprint. Based on the digiconomist, these measures are equivalent to the energy used to watch two hours of YouTube videos.

The long-awaited Ethereum Merge was completed in two stages, Bellatrix and Paris. On September 6th, Bellatrix updated the network on the consensus layer. 

While Paris merged the Ethereum Mainnet execution layer with the Beacon Chain’s consensus layer. The Merge was triggered when the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) reached 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000.

The Merge was expected to reduce energy consumption by 99.95%, which it surely did. Moreover, it promised to provide a faster transaction confirmation speed, increase security and bring more scaling solutions.

However, Ethereum’s journey doesn’t stop with the Merge. The team behind Ethereum is looking to increase its technical abilities with future updates, dubbed Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge.