Vitalik Buterin said the blockchain’s software transition is unlikely to be significantly impacted even if miners continue to mint the tokens on its early offshoot, the Ethereum Classic chain.
Ethereum will switch from using miners — essentially, powerful computers — to order transactions to using much more energy-efficient coin wallets, run by so-called validators. The move to the new system, called proof of stake, has been worked on — and delayed — for years, as scores of developers worldwide have kept on improving and testing the software to work out any bugs.
If everything goes smoothly, no one should even notice that the Merge has happened, Tim Beiko, who coordinates Ethereum developers, said in a recent interview. And post-Merge, Ethereum will consume about 99% less energy than it does today, according to various calculations.