Since June, the hash rate of Ethereum Classic (ETC) has increased by 83%, according to information provided by BitwiseInvest researcher Gayatri Dhumal.
In parallel, Ethereum’s (ETH) hash rate has decreased by 11% in anticipation of the imminent Merge update. The largest winner from the current migration of ETH miners has been Ethereum Classic.
A potential Ethereum hard fork on the way?
Vitalik Buterin, the creator of ETH, endorsed the contentious hard fork in late July. It’s a “great” substitute for miners, according to the Canadian coder. After Antpool CEO Leon Lv revealed a $10 million investment in the network, the ETC coin saw a significant increase.
There are initiatives to start new hard forks for miners at the same time. However, the absence of backing from exchanges and significant decentralized apps makes it extremely unlikely that new proof-of-work coins will catch on.
The co-founder of ETH said earlier this month that “very much everyone” supported ETH’s switch to proof of stake. After years of delays, the significant software update is anticipated to take place in mid-September. Fork of Ethereum Classic is anticipated to succeed.
The Ethereum Foundation has said that the Merge will occur in two phases. The Bellatrix network upgrade, which is the first stage, is set to begin on September 6 at 11:34 AM.
After switching from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake at the execution layer, the Paris upgrade will proceed to the network upgrade. The Paris upgrade is announced to happen between September 10 and September 20, 2022.
The miners would essentially lose their work since the merge will replace mining with staking. In fact, mining is a power and energy-intensive process that uses a lot of resources. With PoS, energy use will be reduced by more than 99%.
The ETH community is bracing itself for this major upgrade that will change how Ethereum functions.