Vitalik Buterin’s dad: The Merge is a ‘huge milestone for the crypto space’ over energy use

Vitalik Buterin’s dad Dmitry Buterin said that The Merge will be a huge milestone in how the crypto space handles “its humongous waste of energy,” one of the biggest criticisms blockchain technology faces.

Speaking with The Block on Twitter, the elder Buterin — sometimes dubbed “the Grandfather of Ethereum” — said lowering the amount of energy Ethereum uses will be one of the biggest effects of The Merge.

According to Alex de Vries of Ethereum and Bitcoin energy consumption tracking platform Digiconomist, Ethereum’s current electricity demand is comparable to that of Portugal. Following The Merge, this could mostly vanish overnight and represents a massive step in making Ethereum more sustainable.

“Current times clearly show how big of a deal [energy waste] is — just look at Russia blackmailing Europe with energy over [the] Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Buterin said.

Born in Chechnya, Buterin lived in Moscow before emigrating to Canada with his family and is a serial entrepreneur and blockchain angel investor. Both he and Vitalik Buterin have opposed the war in Ukraine and supported efforts by the likes of Ukraine DAO to raise money in support of Ukraine.

Buterin also praised the community working on Ethereum, adding that The Merge was “a culmination of years of hard work by so many smart, passionate humans in the Ethereum community.”

“Research, hope, dead ends, disappointment, impatience, everything… Finally, it’s a foundation [for] so many other cool improvements planned for Ethereum.”

The Merge will happen when the Total Terminal Difficulty threshold for mining a block is hit, which is currently predicted to take place around 5 am UTC Thursday morning.

For the latest news and updates about The Merge, make sure to check out our live coverage.

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