ETHEREUM IS DITCHING ITS ‘MINERS.’ WHY?

A complex software change to the cryptocurrency ethereum holds the potential to dramatically reduce its energy consumption — and resulting climate-related pollution. But the transition known as “the merge” is not going to do the trick by itself.

With the change enacted, ethereum — the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency after bitcoin — has effectively eliminated the energy-intensive task of “mining” new coins on its blockchain. Mining requires enormous computing power, which translates to huge energy consumption and, in many areas, greater greenhouse gas emissions at older power plants.

By itself, however, the ethereum change won’t eliminate crypto’s expected environmental impact, although it’s expected to help a great deal. The backers of bitcoin have so far shown little interest in doing away with mining.

BACK UP A SECOND. WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital money secured via encryption in a publicly viewable and purportedly unalterable way. Using these currencies, people can make direct financial transactions without any need for a bank or other financial intermediaries.

They run on constructs called blockchains, which consist of digitally signed transaction records that document every time a crypto coin is transferred or spent. Blockchains are also known as distributed ledgers because synchronized copies are stored on computers around the world; these copies also make it extremely difficult to alter, insert or destroy blockchain records.

IS CRYPTO BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?