Is Ethereum PoW or PoS?

Currently, Ethereum has both a proof-of-work and proof-of-stake chain running in parallel . While both chains have validators, only the proof-of-work chain currently processes users’ transactions.

Proof of work is the older of the two, used by Bitcoin, Ethereum 1.0, and many others . The newer consensus mechanism is called proof of stake, and it powers Ethereum 2.0, Cardano, Tezos and other (generally newer) cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum will move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake this summer , Vitalik Buterin has confirmed. The ETH 2.0 ‘Merge’ upgrade promises to cut transaction fees, increase coins ‘burned’ and improve congestion.

And unlike Ethereum, looking to migrate to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model, Ethereum Classic remains ETH’s original proof-of-work (PoW) status .

Does Bitcoin Use Proof of Work? Yes . It uses a PoW algorithm based on the SHA-256 hashing function in order to validate and confirm transactions as well as to issue new bitcoins into circulation.