Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum's merge slashes global energy consumption by 0.2%, making it one of the biggest decarbonization events ever

• The merge slashed worldwide electricity consumption by 0.2%, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted Thursday, citing a crypto researcher.
• A report from the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute found it now releases less carbon dioxide than a few hundred US households do in a year.

The Ethereum merge this week slashed global energy consumption by 0.2%, Vitalik Buterin wrote in a tweet Thursday, citing a crypto researcher.

The long-awaited event successfully transformed the blockchain from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake. Proponents have touted the transition for making ethereum an almost-net zero technology.

The switch also makes gas fees, or transaction costs, lower and means the network will be able to process transactions faster.

—vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022

Buterin's tweet echoes a new report from the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute which found that Ethereum's energy use decreased by 99.988% and carbon-dioxide emissions decreased by 99.992%.

It also said the Ethereum network releases less less carbon dioxide than a few hundred US households do in a full year.

The report was commissioned by ConsenSys, and its founder Joseph Lubin, who also co-founded Ethereum, praised the research in a statement: "We're delighted to have commissioned this report from CCRI, which substantiates the Ethereum Merge's impact as likely the biggest decarbonization effort of any industry in history."

Experts have called the merge the most important crypto event in history after the creation of bitcoin and ether, as the smart contract platform contains hundreds of billions of dollars in value.

With the merge, the Ethereum network is split into smaller data blocks that have faster processing capacity. This so-called Ethereum 2.0 technology aims to handle 100,000 transactions per second. Previously, the same blockchain could process roughly 30 transactions per second.

"Under the new paradigm, decentralized networks can operate with lower fixed costs, and become more flexible for larger-scale solutions beyond just currency and financial applications," Al Morris, co-founder of Web3 firm Koii Network, told Insider earlier this week.

Meanwhile, bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as well as other chains, still use the proof-of-work framework. The energy-guzzling nature of the crypto mining necessary in proof-of-work has come under scrutiny from policymakers.