What Will Miners Do?
After the Merge update to be experienced on the Ethereum network, the Ethereum Proof of Work algorithm will switch to the Proof of Stake algorithm. As this was the case, Etheruem miners began to look for a new alternative for themselves. We can more or less think about which Proof Of Work coins will be preferred by miners. We can’t say for sure that it will be this coin, but there are a few alternatives. It works with the Proof Of Work algorithm in Bitcoin, wouldn’t Ethereum miners prefer Bitcoin? Maybe they will, but their first stop will definitely not be Bitcoin. Because most Ethereum miners use GPU processors that were long overruled by Bitcoin miners. Ethereum miners account for 97% of GPU mining activities. Miners can switch to new business models in order to survive. Or, as an alternative, they can switch to a different Proof of Work coin. So what are the miners’ alternatives?
Ethereum Classic
Among the first alternatives to miners is Ethereum Classic, which was forked from Ethereum in 2016. Ethereum Classic is a cryptocurrency with a system that includes decentralized applications. Ethereum Classic has no plans yet to switch to a proof-of-stake algorithm like Ethereum. The goal of Ethereum Classic is to stay true to the original Ethereum network and preserve the pure state of blockchain data.
Is Ethereum Classic a Dead Project?
As we said, Ethereum Classic may be the first stop for Etheruem miners, but Cardano CEO Charles Hoskinson, who was also among the founders of Ethereum, stated that he felt sorry for Ethereum Classic. Hoskinson said in his speech: “I like the idea of a sustainable development fund turning into a miner’s tax. I feel bad for him as I think about what Ethereum Classic could be. It’s a dead project that no longer has any purpose, no real arguments, and is just to exist.” He used his expressions. But not everyone thinks like Hoskinson. For example, digital investment company Grayscale has investments in the Ethereum Classic project. The company currently has around $490 million in Ethereum Classic funds. Likewise, the mining giant company had invested $10 million in Ethereum Classic in Antpool.
So what are the miners’ options other than Ethereum Classic? Hoskinson said in a recent statement that ETC is a dead project and said that miners should prefer Ergo. In fact, in a survey conducted on a Twitter account recently, it was asked which coin miners should choose, and Ergo won by a wide margin, while Ravencoin was second. If you wish, let’s first examine Ergo and then Ravencoin.
What is Ergo?
The Ergo mainnet was established on July 1, 2019 by Dmitry Meshkov and the lead developer of the project, Alexander Chepurnoy. The emergence of the Ergo coin took place after the developers noticed some flaws that both Bitcoin and Ethereum have. The project moves on this path with the motivation to solve these problems, with a mining method called Autolykos. In other words, the Ergo network does not use the complex cryptographic equation solution model used by Bitcoin, which leads to high energy consumption. The development team, who found such a solution to the problem they saw in the Bitcoin network, found a different solution to the problem of high gas fees as they reached the high transaction volume they saw in the Ethereum network. Instead, Ergo has a stable transaction fee. This fee is around one cent. At the same time, the Proof Of Work model is preferred in terms of security in the Ergo blockchain, which is among the reasons why Etheruem miners prefer Ergo.
Another coin that can be found among the preferences of miners is Ravencoin. Ravencoin has recently gained a very good upward momentum due to the possibility of miners’ preference and managed to make its investors smile. Let’s take a quick look at what Ravencoin is.
What is Ravencoin?
Ravencoin is a project started and developed by Bruce Fenton. It is named after the postman in George Martin’s novel A Song of Ice and Fire. The mining of the project, which was launched on October 31, 2017, was put into practice on January 3, 2018. Meanwhile, Ravencoin is a project developed using a hard fork of Bitcoin and is seen as an alternative to ERC-20 protocols. Using the Proof of Work algorithm, Ravencoin sees security as a priority. This project, which has a similar mechanism and idea with Bitcoin, uses a different hash algorithm compared to Bitcoin.
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