Is Your ETH mining rig useless now? What can you do with it?

On 15th September 2022, Ethereum (ETH) transitioned its consensus protocol from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) through a project popularly known as “The Merge.” This change represented an official switch from Ethereum Mainnet to Beacon Chain as the engine of block production. It also replaces ETH mining as the means of producing valid blocks, with PoS validators taking up the role of validating all transactions and proposing blocks.

You are probably wondering what happened.

Ethereum’s roadmap had a PoS system on it from the get-go, but it was delayed year after year. Things accelerated in the last month of 2020 when the Beacon Chain was finally launched as a separate blockchain to Mainnet and dubbed “the central nervous system” for Ethereum 2.0.

Although Beacon Chain was not processing Mainnet transactions, the developers were testing its architecture and features by allowing it to use the data to agree on active validators and their account balances and reach a consensus. Fast-forward to the 15th of September 2022 — they were confident to launch the Beacon Chain blockchain as the consensus engine for all network data.

What do the numbers say?

Did you know Ethereum mining revenue surpassed Bitcoin mining revenue in 2021?

That’s not all. Ethereum’s mining revenue from August 17th 2021, to August 17th 2022, was higher than that of Bitcoin. While Bitcoin remains the most popular and largest digital asset by market capitalization, miners profited more from contributing power to validating ETH transactions than BTC.

ETH profitability explains why Ethereum kept investing in mining rigs whilst knowing the Ethereum end-game was always PoS. It is estimated that they are holding mining hardware valued at $4 billion.

But, the Merge phases out GPU mining, meaning miners can no longer use GPUs to generate ETH. Obviously, they will need to deploy this hardware elsewhere. This situation leads to our next question:

Where can these miners use their hardware and reap similar benefits as they did with ETH?

As ETH holder or user, you are not required to take action, as the Merge does not affect your wallets or funds. The transition to PoS does not alter ETH history. Instead, the Merge involved integrating the Mainnet into Beacon Chain, thus transferring the entire transactional history of Ethereum.

However, for miners, it’s a bit more complicated than that. ETH mining has been a lucrative investment, mainly due to its growing ecosystem of DApps. Its performance in the crypto markets has encouraged most miners to invest in graphics processing units (GPUs) to power their mining rigs.

What can you do with your mining rig?

If you are a miner intending to embrace the PoS and drop mining entirely, you can consider selling the mining hardware. However, the demand and prices for GPUs have already plummeted throughout 2022, with some selling at half the original price, which makes it challenging to recoup initial investments.

Alternatively, you can consider transitioning to other mineable cryptocurrencies, but note that most of these coins are valued only at a few cents or dollars, compared to ETH which is past the thousand mark. This means that the profit margins for mining these coins won’t be as high as ETH mining.

The ultimate solution needs to make the best of both worlds. Allowing miners to continue their work but do so in a more eco-friendly way. This means you could be keeping your rig and continue making a profit.

This is what Pulsar Chain is here to do

Pulsar Chain, native token PULS, is a sustainable PoW Blockchain ecosystem based on the proven Ethereum protocol. It is built on the belief that maintaining the PoW consensus algorithm is critical in promoting the core values of blockchain. Besides, Pulsar innovators understand that mining is not only a means of making money but also a way of keeping the blockchain secure.

One primary reason for Ethereum’s transition was reducing energy consumption by creating a green ecosystem. While the PoS ecosystem achieves this goal, Pulsar proposes a dynamic ecosystem that maintains the original PoW consensus while simultaneously addressing the energy issue by offering incentives and double-block rewards to miners using green energy.

Instead of forcing the community to abandon the working equipment, an action that might lead to huge losses, we encourage miners to invest in a sustainable blockchain infrastructure.

Want to learn more about the Pulsar PoW ecosystem? Check the official website https://www.pulsarchain.org/

Disclaimer: Readers should keep in mind that the information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. The ideas and strategies presented should not be used to make any investment before assessing your financial situation and consulting a financial professional.