If Ethereum successfully merges and removes the mining mechanism, the approximately 30 million graphics cards participating in the network could become useless.
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Graphics card prices tend to decrease in 2022. Source: 3DCenter |
In mid-March, Ethereum core developer Dapp Lion said that the merging of the Ethereum network could happen in June. At that point, the two Ethereum per block reward will disappear. According to BeinCrypto, this could obliterate the POW (Proof of Work) mechanism. Miners will no longer mine Ethereum with algorithmic machines, but switch to the POS (Proof of Stake - proof of stake) model, which reduces most of the energy used for mining. network maintenance.
According to data on Ouke Cloud Chain, the current computing power of the entire Ethereum network is around 960.58 TH/s. If the average mining speed of each VGA graphics card is 30 MH/s, the world has more than 30 million graphics cards participating in Ethereum mining.
Crypto miner Zhong Jie told Blockchain Daily that when Ethereum consolidates, these 30 million cards are at risk of "overlapping". Some miners can refurbish and resell but not many really want to buy them. Different from normal operations, the lifespan of VGA used for cryptocurrency mining is usually much shorter, so it will be difficult to sell in the market.
If it is not possible to mine Ethereum, the demand for graphics cards in the crypto market will plummet. The industry may experience a sharp correction in supply and demand. Sina quoted Nvidia as saying that shortages and price increases for graphics cards may no longer happen. The early arrival of Ethereum 2.0 will directly affect traditional cryptocurrency mining operations.
Statistics from 3DCenter show that in early March, the average price of AMD graphics cards was 63% higher than the manufacturer's suggested price. By the end of that month, the spread was only 45%. Similarly, Nvidia's cards also dropped from 77% to 57%.
In the US, according to statistics on eBay, the price of VGA has decreased by 20-30% in the past three months. In particular, the low-end and popular models are the most heavily reduced. In Vietnam, some high-end card models also reduce by more than tens of millions of dong, while the popular models are reduced by 2-5 million dong depending on the type.