Ethereum blockchain has completed major software upgrade: Co-founder

A major software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain — which was aimed at drastically reducing its energy usage — has been completed, declared Ethereum inventor and co-founder Vitalik Buterin, in a Twitter post on Thursday.

The upgrade, known as the "Merge", will change how transactions on the Ethereum blockchain occur, and how ether tokens — the second-largest crypto coin after bitcoin — are created.

Under the change, Ethereum will move from a "proof of work" system, in which energy-hungry computers validate transactions by solving complex maths problems, to a "proof of stake" system, where individuals and companies act as validators, using their ether as collateral to win newly created tokens.

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