Ethereum's migration to the new Proof of Stake (PoS)-based blockchain will bring new hash power to the Ethereum Classic network.
It's not just Ethereum Classic's price that is benefiting from the Ethereum merger, which is close to deploying its latest public testnet, Goerli, on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain. Also, the power and security of Ethereum Classic will benefit from the consensus change that Ethereum is making.
The second most important blockchain network in the crypto industry by market value seeks to improve its scalability, performance and energy efficiency, moving towards the proof-of-stake protocol or Proof of Stake (PoS).
However, although this change, which has been years in planning and development, is positive for the blockchain, miners operating on this network are currently concerned.
As The Merge event, the upgrade that will implement the current Ethereum network on the new PoS blockchain, approaches, so does the end of block mining on this network.
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Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and The Merge
Once The Merge arrives and Ethereum moves to PoS consensus, transactions on the network will be confirmed by validator nodes, rather than block miners. This means that miners, who operate millions of GPU machines on the current Ethereum network, must get rid of their equipment and adapt to the new blockchain or migrate to other blockchains.
This second option seems to be the most likely for ether miners.
According to The Defiant, the Ethereum Classic crypto community, based on the protocol Proof of Work (PoW), anticipates that The Merge will bring with it “a ton of hashing power to ETC”, which will make the network the largest PoW smart contract blockchain in the crypto industry.
Several Ethereum miners, such as AntPool and crypto miner manufacturer Innosilicon, are already supporting Ethereum Classic as the best alternative for network miners. AntPool is investing $10 million in ETC PoW mining, while Innosilicon is adapting its equipment to mine this cryptocurrency.
In the last week, ETC price increased 10% on the positive outlook surrounding The Merge. At press time, ETC is trading at $35,89 per unit.
Last July, the growth of this crypto asset exceeded 130%, placing it among the 20 most capitalized cryptocurrencies in the crypto industry.
Miners support proposal to fork Ethereum
However, although Ethereum Classic miners and the crypto community are preparing to receive much of the hash rate that will leave Ethereum after consensus protocol migration, some ether miners plan to stay on the network.
The Defiant reported that a portion of Ethereum miners are planning to fork the network, to preserve the PoW-based blockchain and, with it, block mining. If this fork were to occur, then it is likely that most of Ethereum's hash rate would remain on the blockchain itself.
More than $15.000 billion invested in GPUs in the last year
In mid-July, Bloomberg analysts reported that nearly 1 million people will no longer receive income from mining blocks on Ethereum when The Merge migration occurs. According to The Block, Ethereum miners generated more than $620 million in mining profits last month.
Another report from Bitpro Consulting notes that Ethereum block miners have invested more than $15.000 billion in mining equipment and facilities to mine the cryptocurrency while securing the network. This investment corresponds to the last year, according to the report.
Vitalik Buterin advises miners to migrate to Ethereum Classic
Consensus change expected on Ethereum happens next September; specifically, in the week of Monday the 19th. Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has supported Ethereum Classic, recommending miners who wish to stay in the crypto mining sector, migrate to this blockchain.
During his participation in the EthCC5 conference, Buterin I call Ethereum Classic a “thin blockchain”.
“Who wants to cancel Proof of Stake?… There are many blockchains, like Ethereum Classic, which is the original Ethereum that did not betray the vision by forking TheDAO. It is a very welcoming community and I think they will definitely welcome Proof of Work fans… If you like Proof of Work, you should use Ethereum Classic”, notes the ETC blog, citing a recording of Buterin made by Donald McIntyre.
Continue reading: Ethereum Developer Announces Goerli Testnet Merger for August
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