Deutsche Telekom will validate the now environmentally friendly Ethereum blockchain
Deutsche Telekom will become a validator for the Ethereum blockchain after the transition to a green consensus.
A recent event called “The Merge” switched Ethereum away from Proof of Work – an energy-intensive consensus that requires powerful computers to solve complex equations – to the eco-friendly Proof of Stake. In this way, Ethereum has reduced energy consumption by around 99.98 percent.
Ethereum is the largest smart contract platform and it is expected that the transition to an environmentally friendly consensus will increase the interest of individuals, companies and institutions that previously did not want to be associated with a technology that consumes huge amounts of energy.
On Thursday, Deutsche Telekom announced that it is expanding its activities in blockchain by supporting Ethereum. The operator’s subsidiary, T-Systems MMS, will provide Ethereum Network infrastructure in the form of validation nodes.
“Our partner StakeWise collects individual Ether tokens from many different owners and merges them into validator nodes. These validator nodes are provided and operated as infrastructure by T-Systems MMS, says Dirk Röder, head of the Blockchain Solutions Center at T-Systems MMS.
“Staked Ether tokens remain available to the owner in this construct – floating – and can be used in other Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications.”
Centralization concerns have arisen around Ethereum with significant power concentrated in a limited number of stake pools, in the same way that Bitcoin is controlled by a small number of mining pools. More participation over time should help to increase decentralisation.
“With the transition to Proof-of-Stake, we expect strong demand and significantly increasing capital flows in the Ethereum network. We are therefore pleased that T-Systems MMS, as an infrastructure provider, adds more reliability to our protocol and makes the Ethereum ecosystem safer overall , explains Kirill Kutakov, co-founder of StakeWise.
Deutsche Telekom’s support for Ethereum follows existing support for blockchains Flow, Celo and Polkadot.
“After partnering with Flow, Celo and Polkadot, we are now taking the next decisive step in the blockchain world and pioneering work here with Ethereum. As a node operator, our entry into floating stakes and the close cooperation with a DAO is news for Deutsche Telekom, adds Röder.
(Image credit: Deutsche Telekom)
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