Ethereum Merge hits graphic cards, but GPU-based mining is not dead

moneycontrol.com:

Ethereum’s shift of its consensus algorithm from proof-of-work (PoW) to environment-friendly proof-of-stake (PoS) in an event called ‘The Merge’ earlier this week will result in sizeable graphic card (GPUs) dump and hit manufacturers such as Nvidia and AMD.

As The Merge has obviated the need to secure the blockchain network, GPUs are no longer needed on a mass scale and will go for a significant discount, experts said. However, this may not happen immediately as the GPUs can be deployed for a new Ethereum hard fork and mining other stablecoins.

“With the Merge on the cards for a long while now, I would imagine most miners would have planned ahead with alternative money-making schemes. But, once the flooding stops, it would revert to basically as it is now, unless the increased demand for GPUs drop, caused by more than just mining. Things like the extreme influx of using computers for entertainment and work purposes will continue as usual,” Raj Kapoor, Founder and CEO of India Blockchain Alliance, told Moneycontrol.

According to experts, there will be increased availability of second-hand GPUs that have been mined to bits.

With The Merge, the energy used to maintain the whole Ethereum network will drop by a huge 99.9 percent, which will result in a 0.2 percent decrease in world electricity use. However, not all ETH miners may want to give up their GPU exploits in favour of the more environmentally friendly PoS variant.

What is GPU-based mining?

The majority of crypto mining in the beginning, especially for Bitcoin and Ethereum, was done on basic CPUs for home computers but as demand increased so did the mining difficulty.

People then discovered that their GPUs were well suited to handle algorithms since these computer parts were