Cryptocurrencies
Ethereum Races Clock to Collect Enough Coins for Big Upgrade
- The world’s most used blockchain has set Nov. 24 as deadline
- About 72% of the digital asset Ether that’s needed is pledged
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Ethereum, the most-actively used blockchain in the world, is approaching its deadline to convince users to pledge enough digital currency to enable a network upgrade that would allow it to process a similar number of transactions as Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc.
Since Ethereum went live it 2015 it has relied on an energy-intensive and slow method to ensure the computers on its network agree on the current state of its digital ledger. Ethereum developers have been working for years to transition to a system that instead uses a pooled amount of the digital currency Ether to secure the network and allow it to reach consensus much faster.