2022.09.22 13:36World eye

暗号資産イーサリアム、システム移行「マージ」完了

【パリAFP=時事】暗号資産(仮想通貨)市場で先週、ビットコインに次ぐ時価総額2位のイーサリアムが業界最大のシステム移行「マージ」を完了した。狙いは環境負荷の削減にある。(写真は暗号資産イーサリアムをイメージしたコインに記されているロゴ)
 年間消費電力量がニュージーランドよりも多いと批判にさらされてきたイーサリアムは、数年前からエネルギー効率の高いシステムの開発に取り組んできた。
 イーサリアムの生みの親であるビタリック・ブテリン氏は、「ついに完了!」とツイッターに投稿。「イーサリアムのエコシステムにとって重大な転機」だと述べた。
 同氏が引用した調査結果によると、イーサリアムのマージによって世界の電力消費量が0.2%削減されるという。
 だが、新システムで必要になるエネルギー量はまだ分からないとして、この主張に懐疑的な専門家もいる。

■PoWからPoSへ
 ビットコイン、イーサリアムをはじめとする暗号資産の取引を承認する作業は「マイニング(採掘)」と呼ばれる。倉庫のような巨大なスペースに高性能なコンピューターを大量に用意し、複雑なデータ処理を行う作業だが、その際、大量のエネルギーが消費される。
 イーサリアムがこれまで採用してきた「プルーフ・オブ・ワーク(PoW)」と呼ばれる仕組みでは、マイニングに必要な計算にいち早く成功した人がサイバー通貨で報酬を受け取るが、大量のエネルギー消費を伴う。
 新たに採用された「プルーフ・オブ・ステーク(PoS)」と呼ばれる仕組みでは、こうした競争の要素が取り除かれ、「マイナー(採掘者)」の存在も不要になる。そのため、大量のコンピューターで膨大なエネルギーを消費する必要もない。
 PoSではマイナーに代わって、「バリデーター(承認者)」と呼ばれるノード(端末)が安全性の高い分散型の台帳技術「ブロックチェーン」に記録されるデータの妥当性を検証する。
 バリデーターになるためには、イーサリアムの仮想通貨で32イーサ(約800万円)を投じる必要があり、その後、ランダムなプロセスによって選ばれたバリデーターが検証を行い、報酬を受け取ることができる。【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2022/09/22-13:36)
2022.09.22 13:36World eye

Ethereum blockchain completes 'monumental' overhaul


Leading cryptocurrency figures hailed on Thursday the completion of one of the biggest software upgrades the sector has ever attempted, an overhaul of the Ethereum blockchain aimed at reducing its massive energy consumption.
Developers had spent years working on an energy-efficient version of Ethereum, a digital ledger that underpins tens of billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies, digital tokens (NFTs), games and apps.
Ethereum is the second most important blockchain after bitcoin, but it has faced criticism for burning through more power each year than New Zealand.
And we finalized! tweeted Ethereum's co-creator Vitalik Buterin, calling it a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem.
Buterin quoted research claiming that the merge, as developers have called the software upgrade, would reduce global electricity consumption by 0.2 percent.
Enthusiasts hope a more energy efficient Ethereum will spur wider adoption of blockchain technology, particularly for banks and financial firms to automate backend processes.
But so far the technology has been used largely to create speculative financial products.
And critics remain sceptical of the energy saving claims, pointing out that it is unclear how much energy the new system will need.
- Trading resumes -
Blockchain company Consensys called it a monumental technological milestone but the scale of the work and potential for glitches led several companies and major exchanges to halt trading during the merge process.
The biggest exchange, Binance, said on Thursday it had resumed trading in ether, the native currency of Ethereum, tweeting: The Ethereum Merge is complete.
Ether was down slightly in early trading and has lost more than half of its value since the start of the year, suffering a rout along with the rest of the crypto world as investors shied away from risky assets.
But ether has recovered better than most crypto assets and Edouard Hindi of Geneva-based crypto hedge fund Tyr Capital told AFP the currency was now likely to rise against the dollar and bitcoin as cautious investors begin to buy.
Ether accounts for almost 20 percent of a cryptocurrency market valued at around $1 trillion, according to the site CoinGecko.
The upgrade changes the way transactions are logged on the Ethereum blockchain.
From the start of Ethereum in 2015, so-called crypto miners competed for the prize of adding entries to the blockchain.
They used vast computer power to solve complex equations with only the winners getting the reward, a mechanism known as proof of work.
The new system scraps the competition element and eliminates the miners and their energy-guzzling computer stacks.
Instead, potential validators need to put up 32 ether (worth $55,000) with the winner chosen in a lottery-style system to update the chain and receive the reward, a system known as proof of stake.
It makes Ethereum much easier to understand conceptually and far less controversial, Charlie Erith of ByteTree Asset Management told AFP.
He said it would make it harder for investors and regulators to take a tough line on the technology.
However, the upgraded blockchain could face a rocky start.
Some crypto mining companies have already promised to keep running the old mechanism on a smaller blockchain, forked from the main Ethereum chain.
And even if the merge is successful, Ethereum will remain expensive and slow compared with non-blockchain alternatives.

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