Miners and ETH 2.0 – Where do they stand now
As we approach the Ethereum Merge, the crypto-community’s opinions have been more vocal than usual. The much-awaited ETH 2.0 will change the blockchain’s consensus mechanism to a Proof-of-Stake model, pushing ETH miners out of business. Apart from the chances of them quitting the mining industry, there is a possibility that they opt for a hard fork in the Ethereum network or also try to switch to a different blockchain.
Recently, Hongcai “Chandler” Guo, a former ETH miner, mentioned in an interview that multiple Chinese Ethereum mining machine manufacturers reached out to him to initiate forking efforts. According to journalist Colin Wu, there are nearly $5 billion worth of graphics card mining machines and ASIC Ethereum mining machines (A11 E9) that need to find a way to continue mining after the Merge.
<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>At present, there are nearly 5 billion US dollars of graphics card mining machines and ASIC Ethereum mining machines (A11 E9) that need to find a way to continue mining after Ethereum turns to POS in September. Most belong to Chinese miners.— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 29, 2022
Though the shift of ETH to a PoS mechanism will considerably reduce electricity consumption, miners are worried about how they will keep their operations going. For some, a hard fork that would allow them to continue mining the crypto is a good idea.
While there is much hype in the crypto-community regarding Ethereum 2.0, as always, the opinions are diverse. In fact, in a recent Twitter thread, MakerDAO pointed out that the Merge could do more harm than good.
<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>Impacts for Maker:• Minimal impact if all externally backed asset issuers support merge upgrade.
• If one or more
Read more on ambcrypto.com
