Why Ethereum’s Merge Means Crypto That’s Much Greener: QuickTake

Where does money come from? In the case of dollars, they are printed by the US Mint. For cryptocurrencies, the answer is more complicated. From the time of their birth, the digital tokens with the biggest market value, Bitcoin and Ether, were only issued to pay for tasks performed by so-called miners in what are known as “proof-of-work” systems. It’s an approach that has drawn increasing criticism for the large amounts of energy consumed and pollution produced. That changed on Sept. 15, when Ethereum, the platform that runs the Ether coin, switched to a system called “proof of stake” in ...