File photo of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin speaking at ETHDenver on February 18, 2022 in Denver, Colorado.

The upgrade to a proof of stake system took place early Thursday, moving from a proof of work system to a proof of stake system. There hasn't been a catastrophic event yet despite predictions by an army of short sellers.

We finalized. All of us are happy about merging. It's a big moment for the platform. Vitalik Buterin said that everyone who helped make the merger happen should be proud.

The original proof-of-work system required computers to play a guessing game to verify transactions on the network, while proof-of-stake allowed validation of transactions through the use of ether.

Cryptocurrencies that allow for mining of coins have come under fire in recent years for consuming energy comparable to entire countries. Even if it is a Ponzi scheme, at least it is a more eco-friendly one.

In recent weeks, short sellers have been betting against ether, saying that it will cause security problems and weaken faith in the currency. Something would go wrong, according to some in the community.

It's difficult for me to see how a fully functioning platform with a market cap of $200 billion can change the engines out in flight and not have some sort of security issue in all that complexity

Between August 24 and September 8 the foundation offered a $1 million bounty for bugs. $250,000 is the top bounty for bugs.

There are no signs of bad things happening under the hood at the moment. If there are weaknesses to exploit, there is still time. The FBI says that North Korea was behind the theft of $625 million worth of digital currency from the RoninBlockchain back in March.

The price of ether is down 42% from six months ago when it was $2,800. If everything goes according to plan, ether short sellers could be in for a lot of trouble.

The largest currency in the world is currently trading at $20,137, down 1.21% from the previous day and down 50% from a year ago.