Just 24 hours after the merger of Etherium into a proof of stake, instead of a proof of work cryptocurrency, and graphics card mining is effectively dead in the water. Where just a few days ago there were hundreds of thousands of graphics cards crunching numbers and earning their owners significant profit margins, today that's all but evaporated as Etherium mining is no longer profitable. Better yet, the alt coins that some miners switched to aren't proving popular enough to be profitable either, so GPU mining is effectively dead. Perhaps forever.
Graphics cards have been one of the major drivers of cryptocurrency mining over the years. While Bitcoin migrated to ASIC miners years ago, Ethereum mining was still possible on GPUs due to it being hardened against ASICs. That lead to GPU pricing crisis over multiple years and gamers left in the dark when it came to new cards. Ethereum mining also contributed to a massive spike in global electricity usage, so there have been long calls for Ethereum to transition to Proof of Stake, a different model for cryptocurrencies to remain secure, without the massive environmental impact.
Now it's happened, and the impact has been dramatic and immediate.
GPU #mining is dead less than 24 hours after the #merge.
Here are the three largest #GPU chains and current daily profitability with a 3090 GPU and 6 us¢/kwh#ETC -7 ¢#XMR -37 ¢#RVN 2 ¢
The only coins showing profit have no marketcap or liquidity. The profit is not real #btc— Hashoveride (₿en Gagnon) (@hashoveride) September 15, 2022
It seems likely that some coins will emerge to offer a slight profit for those with the most powerful cards, but the GPU market is now being flooded with cheap cards and that seems likely to have a big impact on the industry for many months to come.
Image source: Stanley Osoreo