Crypto Industry News:
According to Carl Beekhuizen of the Ethereum Foundation, the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 update will help reduce blockchain energy consumption by 99.95%. It will also ensure that the chain will no longer "eat as much power as entire countries":
"By my (very conservative) calculations, Ethereum will see a greater than ~ 99.95% reduction in energy use post merge".
Considering the total number of validators, unique addresses and the average energy consumed by excavators, the resulting figure was significantly lower than the current energy requirement of Ethereum, which uses the proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism.
"Overall, Proof of Stake Ethereum uses something on the order of 2.62 megawatts. It is not a scale of countries, provinces, or even cities, but a small town (around 2,100 US houses)."
- wrote Beekhuizen.
Currently, the Ethereum blockchain uses the same energy-intensive proof of work (PoW) consensus mechanism as Bitcoin. However, that will change soon, thanks to Ethereum 2.0. An ambitious, years-long update will shift the web to a greener consensus mechanism called proof of stake (PoS).
The proof of stake is when users block - or stack - Ethereum. In this way, they support the production of new blocks, rather than using energy-intensive cryptocurrency miners.
In terms of energy per transaction, ETH 2.0 consumes the equivalent of "around 20 minutes of television". For comparison, one transaction on PoW Ethereum requires an amount of electricity that could power the entire house for 2.8 days. One Bitcoin transfer uses the same amount of energy as "whole house for 38 days".
While ETH 2.0 is still in its introductory phase, users blocked over $ 4 million worth of tokens in a post-deposit contract. The first test networks for ETH 2.0 were launched at the end of April. However, the exact date of full implementation is very difficult to establish.
Technical Market Outlook:
The ETH/USD pair has been seen trading close to the level of $2,929, which is a 38% Fibonacci retracement of the last wave down. There is a lower channel line as well around this level, so the local bounce towards the technical resistance seen at the levels of $3,122, $3,184 and $2,955 is possible. The market is in full control of bears and only a strong breakout above the level of $2,929 (38% Fibonacci retracement of the last wave down) would temporary change the outlook to bullish (but still corrective in nature). The next target for bears is seen at the level of $1,941.
Weekly Pivot Points:
WR3 - $4,859
WR2 - $4,608
WR1 - $3,835
Weekly Pivot - $3,623
WS1 - $2,857
WS2 - $2,581
WS3 - $1,823
Trading Recommendations:
The longer term up trend on the Ethereum continues despite the local counter-trend corrections. The next long term target for ETH/USD is seen at the level of $5,000. The key long term technical support is seen at the level of $3,000, so only a weekly candle close below this level will invalidate the bullish scenario.
