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While a tentative date for The Merge has been pencilled in by developers, and even though it’s quite possible it could be delayed once again, Ethereum’s hashrate has dropped 26.26% during the last 45 days. 18.21% of the hashrate loss took place after June 30, as Ethereum’s global hashrate slipped from 1,190 terahash per second (TH/s) to today’s 973.27 TH/s. While Ethereum’s hashrate decreased, Ethereum Classic’s hashrate spiked 12.07% higher during the last two days, but the added terahash was way less than the hashrate that left Ethereum during the last few weeks.
Ethereum’s Hashrate and Mining Revenue Slides, 217 TH/s Lost Since Ethereum’s All-Time Hashrate High
Bitcoin.com News announced that the Merge might be implemented as early as September 19th 2022. The software developer Superphiz shared a “planning timeline” last week, that set a provisional date for Ethereum to transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model.
The developer stressed that the date was not finalized but he also remarked that it was “extremely exciting” to see the transition coming together. The proposed date for The Merge fueled ethereum’s (ETH) value against the U.S. dollar, but it also increased ether gas fees by a dollar or more per transfer, at a time when transaction fees have been low.
Interestingly, ETH’s hashrate has been dropping too, just as The Merge’s ostensible date was pencilled in by ETH developers last week. Overall, Ethereum’s computational power started to slide 44 days ago, after it reached an all-time high (ATH) at 1,320 TH/s or 1.32 petahash per second (PH/s) on June 4, at block height 14,902,285.
Since then, ETH’s global hashrate has been reduced by 26.26%, but the biggest drop during the last six months occurred on June 30. Ethereum’s hashrate dropped 18.21% from 1,190 TH/s to the 973 TH/s range, or under the 1 PH/s range. PoW miners in Ethereum will need to either stop mining or dedicate Ethash havehpower to other uses when the PoW transition to PoS.
It is assumed that a majority of ETH’s PoW miners will simply mine ethereum classic (ETC), as the two networks share the same Ethash algorithm. One could assume that ETC’s recent 12.07% hashrate increase stemmed from ETH miners, however, while ETH lost 217 TH/s, ETC only gained 2.11 TH/s.
It’s arguably easier to assume that 217 TH/s shut off over the lack of profits from ETH’s fiat value dropping last month. Ethereum miners have not made the same profits as they did months back. On May 7, 2021 ETH miners earned $93.16 millions in just 24 hours. And on January 5, 2022, ETH miner made $85.38million in just 24 hours. Today, over half that amount is gone, and miners earned $43.23million in the 24 hours just before midnight.
Ethash, the best consensus algorithm in today’s market, is still profitable. Bitmain Antminer E9 has 2.4gahash per second and can make an estimated $56.49 daily profit. Compare that to one of today’s most profitable bitcoin miners, the Bitmain Antminer S19 XP with 140 TH/s, which makes $5.17 per day in profits.
According to statistics, there are 78 mining pools listed that currently mine ETH. Ethermine.org ranks as the biggest miner of hashrate. Ethermine.org commands 260.20 TH/s of today’s 973 TH/s. The 712.8 TH/s are left over from the dozens ETH pool that mine ether every single day.
What do you think about Ethereum’s hashrate dropping as The Merge approaches? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
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