As we all know that the merge in Ethereum blockchain just took place on 15th Sep and changed a lot of things. The change in the ETH blockchain has not just affected itself but also the entire crypto market.
The merge is basically an Ethereum upgrade that was being planned for quite a long time. The main purpose of the upgrade is to improve the network and make it better for its users. This update is being considered as one of the most important ones that can be very beneficial for the whole ecosystem and can completely change it. With the merge, Ethereum mainnet just got shifted from proof of work to the Beacon Chain’s proof of stake mechanism. The proof stake is a type of consensus mechanism that differs from the conventional proof of work.
Effects of Merge in ETH Miners:
Since the blockchain is now fully shifted to PoS mechanism, the miners also faced some major changes. For all the Ethereum miners, it has become progressively difficult to make money after the merge as huge number of miners is making their ways towards other coins.
Thursday, 15th Sep, Ethereum, which is the world’s second-biggest blockchain network, changed its consensus algorithm from PoW to PoS to support productivity and lower energy utilization. In any case, the software update – named the Merge- likewise implied that miners were not generally expected to secure the whole network, thus rig operators moved their machines to other PoW blockchains. GPU mining was seen dead within a time span of just 24 hours after the merge took place. The three biggest GPU chains have exceptionally low profits, and the main coins showing profits have no market cap or liquidity.
The hashrate, or power that is used to mine PoW altcoins like ethereum classic and ravencoin got doubled in a few hours after ETH merge took place. Along with rising hashrate, the troubles for miners are rising as well. This means that the ETH miners are less likely to effectively mine a block and receive the block reward.
The reward for mining an Ethereum Classic (ETC) block 24 hours prior was ETC 0.0186484 or around 70 cents, however a check after the merge indicated that the reward went down to just ETC 0.00030658 which is not more than around 11 cents. The merge that took place is just the first step in the Ethereum’s blockchain. Ether miners are trying hard to stack up their losses by moving to other digital currencies, for example, Ethereum Classic and Ravencoin. There is a long way for ETH blockchain to become a mature system and even after the merge, there are many things left.
