Mark Cuban is showing his support for Ethereum. The imminent Ethereum “merge,” a highly awaited upgrade for the blockchain that would significantly lower its ecological footprint, has the endorsement of billionaire Mark Cuban.
Cuban, a Shark Tank investor tells Fortune that he supports the merger. “I believe that the issue of energy utilization is crucial.”
The “Shark Tank” star has long been a prominent figure in Ethereum. To emphasize his fondness for the Bitcoin rival, he even went so far as to designate himself as an “Ethereum maxi” in November.
Mark Cuban awaits the Ethereum Merge
The merge, which is anticipated to take place on September 15, would change Ethereum’s consensus algorithm from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Proof of stake relies on a network of validators as opposed to proof of work, which uses energy-intensive miners to create new blocks and validate transactions.
Consequently, mining on Ethereum will be essentially stopped once the merger takes place, and its overall energy use is predicted to drop by 99.9%.
Cuban stated that he views the switch to proof of stake as favorable for this reason. He has frequently referenced the network’s applications and use cases as a motivator behind his support when speaking about his fondness for Ethereum. He has primarily discussed his interest in smart contracts, which are sets of computer code that carry out a set of instructions on a blockchain.
Ethereum Foundation unveils the date of the Merge
The Merge will happen in two phases, according to the Ethereum Foundation. The Bellatrix network update, which is slated to take place on September 6 at 11:34 AM, is the first step. The Paris upgrade, which completes the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake at the execution layer, will approach the network upgrade. On September 10 and September 20, 2022, Paris will take place.
The miners will effectively lose their jobs because the merge would replace mining with staking. Indeed, mining is an energy-intensive activity that uses a sizable amount of power and energy. PoS intends to reduce this energy usage by over 99%.
The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who once asserted that bananas are more useful than Bitcoin, has subsequently changed his mind. He now sees bitcoin as a form of gold’s direct rival as a store of value.