Ethereum Merger Spurs Big New Trend in ‘Green’ NFTs Minted in Minutes

by James · September 15, 2022

With the Ethereum merger complete, many in the crypto world are celebrating the only way they know how – with a new batch of NFTs.

Immediately after the merger was completed early Thursday, some creators launched new NFT collections based on the network’s new eco-friendly identity. Through the merger, the Ethereum network transitioned from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, a software update that eliminated mining to verify blockchain transactions and reduced Ethereum’s environmental footprint by more than 99%.

One of the many merger-themed projects that just launched is called Merge Apes, a pool of 10,000 NFTs with a starting price of 0.06 Ether, or around $90. The profile picture NFTs are a bet on a tweet by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin in which he said, “I don’t hate monkeys, I just want them to fund public goods,” referring to the popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club. Merge Apes, according to the project’s creators, plans to donate 42% of all revenue to funding open source projects in and around the Ethereum community via Gitcoin Grants.

Another collection, “TheTransition: First NFTs Proof-of-Stake,” includes 20 NFTs listed on OpenSea commemorating the first block from the upgraded blockchain. Although the collection was created very early on Thursday, it has already received a minimum price of 0.35 Ether, or about $520. According to a tweet by crypto influencer CirrusNFT, a user had paid 36 Etheror approximately $57,135 per Thursday, in fees for minting an NFT in the Transition collection.

The Ethereum merger is the biggest upgrade since the blockchain debuted in 2015, and has been in the works since 2020. The upgrade is meant to move the blockchain away from miners, who used powerful computers to solve complicated puzzles to verify network transactions. However, due to the increasingly difficult puzzles miners had to solve as transactions on the network increased, these computers used enormous amounts of energy.

Before the merger, Ethereum used about 23 million megawatt hours of electricity per year, but that number is expected to drop to 2,600 megawatt hours annually, according to a study published by the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute on Thursday. The grid’s carbon emissions should also drop significantly, from 11 million tons annually to about 870 tons, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of just 100 American households, according to the study.