Vietnam crypto miners and giant crypto mining firms cry foul after the highly anticipated Ethereum merge render them jobless and in huge losses.
Miners in Vietnam express their grievances over the loss of business following Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake that went live on 15th September 2022.
The transition consensus mechanism does not require the high energy-intensive computing as earlier provided. The crypto miners suffered heavy losses with their mining rigs now shut.
Backlash from Vietnam
Through the highly anticipated merge, Ethereum transitioned to a new mechanism. Ethereum moved from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism.
The transition significantly reduces the amount of energy burnt to validate transactions by 99.95%. The move, therefore, ensures that powerful coin minting hardware is no longer needed. The hardware performed complex mathematical computations.
Apparently, the merge rendered the equipment almost useless. Subsequently, the move resulted in a backlash among crypto miners.
Phrases such as “sell-off rigs” and “goodbye Ethereum” spread after the merge. The phrases spread across online groups of Vietnamese crypto miners.
According to an administrator of a mining group, the merge rendered most crypto miners jobless. Ngoc Can hoped that the merge would occur much later to allow miners to continue mining.
Ethermine previously announced the shutting down of its servers. The firm also informed miners that they will receive their unpaid balances within days.
Impact of Ethereum Merge on Miners
The Ethereum merge left investors pondering what the next development would look like. The excitement over the merge and its bullish price held up hope in the market.
Surprisingly, a lot of sell-off happened after the merge. Bitcoin traded below $20,000 and Ether (ETH) traded below $1,500. The move, though successful, alienated crypto miners. However, the miners will possibly possess their GPUs and ASICs mining infrastructure.
Some miners decided to mine on a different chain instead of selling their equipment. Such chains including Ethereum classic, Flux, Raven coin and Ergo present viable alternatives for miners.
As the Ethereum merge closed in, most networks saw their hash rates hit an all-time high.
The Ups of the Merge
The merge comes amid growing regulatory scrutiny over cryptocurrencies. The merge promised to make transactions on the Ethereum network extremely secure.
The merge drastically increases the security of Ethereum. An attacker needs 51% of the blockchain’s value to take control. With proof-of-work consensus protocol, an attacker required $5 billion to buy enough equipment to facilitate the attack.
Besides this, the merge also acts as an environmentally conscious move. Ethereum transition reduced power consumption by 0.2%. Gigantic mining firms and crypto miners continue to face a hard time with prices of Ethereum dropping as well.
