Rejected Ethereum miners are looking for post-merge crypto alternatives. However, the choices seem weak.
Ethereum miners migrate to these projects
Miners are looking for alternative solutions after the successful transition of Ethereum to PoS. Ethereum developers have long recommended PoW Blockchains like Ethereum Classic to miners. Before Merge, there was a fair amount of social activity focused on PoW-based blockchains. On the other hand, a White House report on energy use indicated that the US government would have to restrict mining based on excessive energy consumption.
After Ethereum migrated to the new PoS, miners migrated to a few other projects. Miners rely heavily on Ethereum Classic, Ergo, and Ravencoin. According to Forbes, these projects are relatively better options in terms of mining capabilities and rewards. As a result, on the day the merge was completed, these cryptocurrencies experienced a significant increase in hash rate. Hash rate is the total computing power used to mine and process transactions. It also represents the mining speed in the Blockchain network.
Miner profits are falling
Following the completion of the spike on September 17, the hash rate on Ethereum Classic, Ravencoin and Ergo increased by 124%, 98% and 146% respectively. However, the mining capabilities of these networks are only a fraction of what Ethereum provided before the merge. While Ethereum’s pre-merge hash rate is around 867 (TH/s), these three networks provide only 28% of that. Also, as miner traffic on these networks increased, profits decreased compared to pre-merge levels.
Meanwhile, the price of Ethereum Classic (ETC) dropped after the merger and has yet to recover. According to price tracking platform CoinMarketCap, the current price of ETC is $33.90, down 0.23% in the last 24 hours. The same is true for Ethereum (ETH), which is still fluctuating at post-merge levels. ETH is currently trading at $1,455.61, up 1.49% in the last 24 hours.
Ethereum merge completed, now what next?
After a successful transition to PoS, the miners’ GPU and ASIC equipment remained idle. Instead of selling the equipment of some miners, they switched to the projects we mentioned above. However, the Cosmos ecosystem that attracts buyers to ATOM continues to expand. Since dropping to $5.50 on June 18, the price of ATOM has increased by 137.5%. It is currently trading at $15.90. The analysis shows that investors see the upcoming liquid staking, ATOM being used as collateral for stablecoin issuance, the launch of Cosmos Hub 2.0, and the overall decentralized finance recovery as long-term bullish factors for ATOM price.
