The hash rate of Ethereum Classic, a proof-of-work blockchain, has significantly increased as miners abandon the now proof-of-stake Ethereum.
Its hash rate, which measures the output of cryptocurrency mining, increased to 183 terahashes per second (TH/s) on Thursday, 280% more than the 64 TH/s hash rate from the previous day.
Notably, statistics from mining pool 2Miners shows that Ethereum Classic’s hash rate has increased by 500% over the past 30 days.
Following Ethereum’s successful switch from a proof of work to a proof of stake consensus, the hash rate suddenly increased. With this improvement, mining is no longer necessary for Ethereum.
Prior to The Merge, Ethereum miners have spent a combined total of billions on mining hardware. Therefore, it was anticipated that Ethereum’s hash rate will migrate to other proof-of-work chains after the Merge. Mining pools had previously discussed expanding to Ethereum Classic before The Merge because they saw it as a competitive proof-of-work blockchain to Ethereum.
The Ethash mining algorithm used by Ethereum Classic works with Ethereum’s mining hardware. ETC, Ethereum Classic’s native cryptocurrency, can therefore be mined using the same GPU and ASIC-based mining equipment created for Ethereum.
According to the most recent data, Ethermine is the biggest Ethereum Classic mining pool, providing roughly 57 TH/s from a total of 30,647 unique miners. Prior to The Merge, Ethermine was the dominant Ethereum mining pool.
Similar trends have been observed in other proof-of-work blockchains. According to 2Miners, the hash rate on the Ergo blockchain increased by more than 390% in a single day, rising from 27 TH/s to 107 TH/s. Similar to Bitcoin, Ravencoin’s hash rate increased significantly in just one day, going from 8 TH/s to 15.52 TH/s.
