Summary:
- Revenue from Ethereum mining has surpassed proceeds boasted by Bitcoin miners.
- Arcane research shows that ETH miners have generated around $11 billion in 2022 so far.
- Bitcoin miners have managed $10 billion as of press time.
- Ethereum’s switch to Proof-of-work could ultimately eliminate the role of miners on the network.
- The transition dubbed “The Merge” is scheduled for September 19, as previously reported.
- Speculations of an Ethereum hard fork have emerged in the past few weeks leading up to The Merge.
- Justin Sun pledged a 1 Million ETH donation if the fork succeeds.
Ethereum miners have generated more revenue than Bitcoin miners over the course of 2022 as the largest altcoin blockchain network moves closer to the anticipated switch from a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, to Proof-of-Stake.
The event is known throughout the crypto community as “The Merge” and is scheduled to happen on September 19 later this year. As previously reported, the date is tentative and subject to alterations by Ethereum developers.
Indeed, data from Arcane Research showed that Ethereum miners have generated around $11 billion from mining in 2022 so far. Bitcoin miners on the other hand have made about $10 billion in revenue at press time.
While Ethereum miners have taken the lead, their future remains uncertain as the Ethereum network is on the verge of moving past the very mechanism that depends on miners – PoW.
In PoW blockchains like Ethereum as it is now and Bitcoin, transactions are validated by miners. These miners are responsible for network security, discovering new blocks to generate fresh tokens, and validating transactions.
However, Ethereum’s switch to Proof-of-Stake pivots away from this need and opts for a different group of validators. Instead, a PoS blockchain network relies on stakers to run nodes for transaction validation and security.
ETH PoW Hard Fork Could Throw Ethereum Miners A New Lifeline
As The Merge approaches, community members have supposedly weighed the idea of forking the Ethereum network. A hard fork would maintain the current version of ETH’s blockchain, and maintain the role of miners in a PoW ecosystem.
While the idea remains a possibility and not a definite move, Tron founder Justin Sun has declared his support for the plan. Sun tweeted on Thursday that a 1 million ETH donation would be made if the community successfully pulls off an Ethereum hard fork.
