Merge Ethereum And What ETH Miners Can Do
14th September, 2022
The Merge, the biggest update to Ethereum (ETH), is coming soon on September 15, 2022.
This update will bring changes to the Ethereum Blockchain consensus mechanism from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake which means no more mining or mining mechanisms.
The change in the mechanism makes the fate of Ethereum miners or miners turn into two choices, mining other coins or staking and turning into validators.
Options for ETH Miners
There are two options for miners who are currently mining Ethereum with the hardware that has been used so far.
The first option is to mine other coins which still uses the Proof of Work mechanism and is compatible with Ethereum mining tools.
Other types of coins that can be mined using Ethereum mining tools are Ethereum Classic and Ravencoin.
These cryptos can use mining tools from Ethereum because Ethereum uses a GPU or Graphical Processing Unit to carry out the mining process.
The GPU can be used for mining or mining some other crypto as already mentioned, so the migration of mining crypto can be a good path for Ethereum miners to take today.
But keep in mind that the demand for some of these cryptos is not as high as Ethereum so the rewards for mining them will also be much smaller.
One of the parties that made this transition is Accountku, one of the largest crypto exchanges in Indonesia which also has a mining farm or Ethereum mining business.
In an interview with Robby, one of the founders of my Account, Coinvestasi received an explanation that there will be a business transition from Ethereum mining to Ethereum Classic mining.
“Since we use GPUs as mining tools, it’s pretty easy for us to move our mining to other alt coins. (…) Mining farm will continue to run. We are currently switching to ETC (Ethereum Classic).” he said.
My account is one of the miners who moved to Ethereum Classic and seeing the size of my account in Indonesia, it is likely that many ETH miners in Indonesia will follow this step.
However, my account reminds, the higher the number of Ethereum Classic miners, the difficulty will also increase which can reduce the level of profit.
“For now, besides being profitable and the easiest to sell on the market, it’s still ETC. but not apart if all ETC miners switch to ETC the difficulty level will also increase so that the results can no longer be maximized. But for miners, there is no need to worry because there are many other coin choices such as Raven, Metaverse ETP, Neoxa and others.”
The good news is, there is an alternative to moving to other crypto mining, namely Enter the world of staking to become a validator on the blockchain New Ethereum with Proof of Stake consensus mechanism.
Mining Pool Turns Into Staking Pool
Regarding this alternative, it seems that more large companies are choosing it over individual miners.
One of the types of companies that have chosen to move to staking are companies that previously worked as mining pools on Ethereum.
Mining pool is a collection that is generally organized by one company or party to combine several miners so that they can work together to get more computing power than other miners in a network so that they get higher profits which are then shared back together.
Read also: What are Mining Pools? Guide For Beginners!
It is noted that several Ethereum mining pool providers are transitioning to start moving to providing staking pools.
There are two big names that are transitioning to form a staking pool, namely Ethermine and f2pool.
Ethermine, the company with the largest mining pool on Ethereum has now launched a beta version of its staking pool service.
This huge influence can make many miners interested in moving to staking because there is a staking pool provided by a company that is well known among Ethereum miners.
The next big name is f2pool which is one of the largest mining pool companies on the Ethereum network.
It is reported that currently f2pool has a “sister company” in the same holdings named stakefish which will provide staking pool services and will cooperate with f2pool.
Apart from switching to a staking pool, miners can also choose another option, which is to sell their Ethereum mining rig.
Naufal Muhammad
Muhammad Naufal is a fan of macroeconomics and finance. At this time the main focus is on the field of financial technology, especially crypto trading and investment.
Muhammad Naufal is a fan of macroeconomics and finance. At this time the main focus is on the field of financial technology, especially crypto trading and investment.
