Ethereum Classic has just activated its new Thanos update that allows the network to continue mining with 4 GB GPUs, opening the doors to new miners to increase network security.
Ethereum Classic (ETC), the net blockchain which continued the path of the "original Ethereum", activated its new update known as Thanos in block number 11.700.000, which was mined last Sunday. When the network reached this block height, the update was automatically activated, starting a new process in the network that opens the doors to new miners with equipment GPU (Graphic Processing Unit).
Thanos is a hard fork, or hard fork, planned by the Ethereum Classic development team to provide mining resistance with rigs ASIC, like those used by the network Bitcoin currently guaranteeing several more years of functionality for existing miners on the network using GPU equipment, as well as calling for new miners to participate to help the network increase its computing power.
Ethereum Classic was hit hard by several 51% attacks, which occurred one after the other a few months ago, and caused huge losses to the network, such as the leakage of more than 5 million dollars from the network, in addition to the cost to the level of trust and security of users on the network.
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Back to mining with old GPUs
According to release written by Luke Williams, developer of Ethereum Classic, the goal of the new update is to calibrate the epoch length to reduce the DAG (directed acyclic graph) file size, thus allowing older 3GB and 4GB GPUs to effectively mine within the network again.
Williams cites that at the current network epoch, epoch 372, the DAG size is 3,91 GB, making miners’ 4 GB GPU rigs obsolete for mining on the network, despite them accounting for a large portion of the computational power currently on the Ethereum Classic network. Therefore, with the introduction of the new Thanos upgrade, the team will be able to reduce the DAG size to allow 4 GB GPU rigs to continue to be useful for mining on the network for up to 3 more years.
“Enabling this change at epoch 376 (for example) would reduce the DAG size from 3,94 GB to 2,47 GB. With the reduced growth rate, 4 GB GPUs will remain supported for over 3 years.”
90% of miners upgraded to Thanos
Terry Culver, CEO of ETC Labs, claims that more than 90% of the miners on the Ethereum Classic network have already upgraded their nodes with Thanos. He also assured that the network has also seen the arrival of new miners, which is causing a notable increase in its computing power.
This update is part of the security program presented by ETC Labs in August, which seeks to strengthen the security of the network after the several attacks it suffered. Culver assures that Thanos is a fundamental piece to complement these security measures, allowing the integration and activation of more miners that add their computing power to create a solid and secure blockchain network.
“Thanos expands and strengthens the mining ecosystem.”
Ethereum Classic upgrade comes at a crucial time for the network Ethereum, which today begins its transition process towards its update Ethereum 2.0. This process will lead ETH to migrate from the proof-of-work protocol (Proof of Work, PoW) Towards Proof of Stake Protocol (Proof of Stake, PoS), so possibly many of the miners who own GPUs will be able to join Ethereum Classic and take advantage of the potential of their equipment to mine ETC for several years.
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