•  Ethereum made a shift from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake
•  99% reduction in energy consumption has been noted by this shift 
•  ETH 2.0 has brought many changes in the Ethereum ecosystem 

Ethereum 2.0, also called Eth2 or Serenity, during mid September 2022,  got the much-awaited upgrade. This significant upgrade is meant to improve Ethereum in terms of its scalability, security and energy efficiency. The following article aims at understanding how Ethereum 2.0 will reduce energy consumption and how it will bring remarkable changes in the blockchain ecosystem.  

Shift from PoW to PoS 

Ethereum 1.0 uses a unison algorithm which is called PoW ( Proof-of-Work) to authenticate transactions and exchanges which in turn adds new blocks to the blockchain. PoW requires solving complex mathematical problems which are to be done by miners and it consumes a lot of energy. This issue has been in talks and debates for the last few years, because it causes considerable harm to the environment and is quite unsustainable. 

On the other hand, Ethereum 2.0 has worked on improvements in the Ethereum blockchain. It has introduced a new algorithm called Proof-of-Stake (PoS), which locks ETH as a stake and can be lost when there is an attempt for fraudulent transactions. Validators are selected on the basis of their stake and for how much time they have been staking, which means that validators have to act honestly otherwise they’ll lose their stake . 

ETH 2.0 and Energy Consumption 

The switch from ETH 1.0 to ETH 2.0 is expected to minimize energy consumption to the Ethereum ecosystem. PoS validators require a small amount of computational power to authenticate transactions because the validators do not solve complicated mathematical problems; instead they only need to authenticate transactions and add it to the blockchain. This upgrade has resulted in a reduction of energy consumption by more than 99% . 

This reduction in energy consumption have several benefits :- 

• It makes the ecosystem more sustainable and environment friendly . 
• It has also made it more accessible as it reduces the cost of running nodes .
• It has decentralized the network and has increased its resilience. 

How Will PoS Bring About A Positive Impact To The Ethereum Environment?

This shift will make the ethereum network more scalable which means that as of March 2023, the network will handle 12 transactions per second but the developers are claiming that it will be able to handle 100,000 transactions per second in the near future. Moreover, this shift has also made the network more secure and the likelihood of attacks has gone down by 51% because the attacker will need the majority of staked ETH to carry an attack which has now become more expensive as compared to PoW . 

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, Ethereum 2.0 has brought significant upgrades to the ethereum ecosystem which also includes the reduction in energy consumption. This introduction has reduced the energy consumption by 99% and has made it more environment friendly and sustainable. Moreover, the shift from PoW to PoS  has transformed the network and made it more scalable, secure and user-friendly which in turn has made it more adaptable and increased its value. Introduction of PoS has marked one of the biggest evolutions in the Ethereum ecosystem.