The long-awaited Ethereum “Merge” is finally complete, and it brings with it significant innovation for the world’s second-largest blockchain. Most notably, the Merge moves Ethereum away from the proof-of-work system it’s used since its inception; instead, the Ethereum blockchain will now use a proof-of-stake system for the creation of new cryptocurrency.
The process of switching Ethereum to a proof-of-stake system is a technically complex one — hence the very long wait for its completion. Those complexities open up a world of new possibilities for the Ethereum blockchain, most notably in that the new system uses much less power to create new Ethereum.
