The Merge, a German cloud provider, reaffirmed its position against permitting mining operations for both proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) applications just as the Ethereum ecosystem neared its final phases of preparation for the highly anticipated update.
Hetzner, a private, centralised cloud provider, weighed in on a topic about maintaining blockchain nodes, emphasising that its terms of service forbid the use of its facilities for crypto-related activity. As shown in the table below, the Ethereum community saw the news as a threat to the ecosystem because about 16% of Ethereum nodes are hosted by Hetzner’s cloud services.
Statistics on the Ethereum Mainnetaccording to ethernodes.org
With regard to crypto’s long-term sustainability, dependence on centralised service providers has generally been seen negatively, and for good reason. Redditor u/Supermann-questioned the anti-crypto rules implemented by Hetzner, the second largest Ethereum mainnet server. Hetzner clarified the uncertainties and legal consequences related to the use of its services for crypto activities.
Using our goods for any mining-related use, even tangentially, is prohibited. This consists of Ethereum. ”
Additionally, the business noted that the prohibition extends to running nodes, mining and farming, graphing, blockchain data storage, and trading. While admitting the substantial use of its services to fuel Ethereum, Hetzner said that “internally, we have been considering how to effectively address this problem.” Hetzner added this as a caution to the community:
If you or any potential customer are unclear if your use case violates our Terms of Service, please contact us.
The latest information from the German cloud provider Hetzner shows how decisions made by centralised corporations can hurt the health of crypto ecosystems.
54% of all Ethereum nodes are now hosted by Amazon.com, which operates the majority of the Ethereum ecosystem. At present, Oracle Cloud (4.1%), Alibaba (2.8%), and Google Cloud (2.2%) are examples of well-known cloud providers that host Ethereum nodes.
Additionally, the Ethereum Foundation explains that the planned Merge update would not lower gas prices.
Inadvertently, discussions around the Ethereum upgrade have spawned various misunderstandings regarding its implications for the future of the blockchain. The analysis by Cointelegraph revealed the top five myths regarding the upcoming Ethereum update.
Reduced gas expenses and speedier transactions are the largest ecosystem-wide myths that have been confirmed to be false. However, the Shanghai revamp will provide faster and cheaper transactions.