The date for Ethereum’s transition from a Proof-of-work based consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake mechanism is inching closer. The change is being done to lower the energy consumption, and carbon footprint produced by the traditional PoW mechanism.
The much-anticipated upgrade to the Ethereum network has attracted investors ever since the idea was first disclosed. This change will have a huge impact on the platform by revamping the entire mechanism.
As stated by the Ethereum Foundation, the Merge will take place in two stages. The first stage is the Bellatrix network upgrade, which is scheduled for September 6, at 11:34:47 AM UTC. The network upgrade will be followed by the Paris upgrade, which will finalize the shift of the execution layer from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. The Paris Stage is scheduled to happen between September 10 and September 20, 2022.
As the transition is now progressing rapidly, it is important to find out what will happen to Ethereum miners. The upgrade to the merge means that miners will be replaced with validators, as the proof-of-stake system relies on validators to verify transactions to keep it running. Verifiers must stake some of the native tokens they hold.
So the real question is: what will happen to the Ethereum miners and their millions of dollars worth of mining rigs?
Will Miners Drop After Ethereum Merge?
Mining has become a billion dollar industry. Miners working in the industry are responsible for solving complex mathematical problems and adding transactions to the blockchain. Miners do mining work for which they get rewarded.
The merge is set to replace mining with staking, which means the miners will be literally out of their jobs. Mining is indeed an energy-centric process with high energy and power requirements. PoS is intended to subside this energy consumption by approximately 99%.
It is recommended to move mining pools to Ethereum Classic as a target for their valuable and powerful specialized computers. So far, various miners have been suggesting their own unique ways to deal with this situation.
Last month, Mining rig behemoth and Bitmain’s mining pool, AntPool, made an announcement that it has invested $10 million for the development of apps to shift its focus to Ethereum Classic.
Ethermine, one of the largest Ethereum mining pools, informed the public about its beta version of the staking pool service.
An anticipated pathway was a potential Ethereum hard fork. However, the exact probability of such a hard fork is still questionable and scanty.
With the network getting closer to a merge every day, the Luxor Technology co-founder expressed his thoughts on the fact that the Ethereum Foundation is moving too fast in its decision to switch to PoS, which will save millions of miners and holders. damage has been done.
However, the larger part of the community seems to be favoring the Merge, as it will make the network faster and a lot more energy efficient.
Ethereum developers revealed that the merger will take place on September 15th. However, there is reason to believe that the date may change depending on the hash rate.
Recently, Teku released a first-stage Bellatrix And Mainnet Update. The Ethereum 2.0 client also released a required update v22.8.1 for all Mainnet users in order to prepare them for the Merge. All Ethereum Mainnet users have been required to upgrade to the newer version before September 6, as by then, Bellatrix will be activated on Mainnet.
