Over the last year I have been using GPUs to mine Ethereum. At the time of this post Ethereum will still be running on the Proof of Work Consensus Mechanism, but in August 2022 the blockchain will be moving to a Proof of Stake Consensus Mechanism. This means that GPUs will no longer be used on Ethereum. Instead, community members that stake up to 32 Ethereum ($71,816.92 at time of writing) will run what is called a Node on any common PC.

This “Node” will do the same job as the GPU’s, this is said to reduce Ethereum blockchain power consumption by a staggering 99%. What used to be called miners will now be validators on the Ethereum blockchain. Instead of earning a profit by running powerful machines, I get interest from the amount that is staked on the network. To prevent malicious activity by validators, a system is put in place that will “slash” the validators staked amount if suspicious activity is detected. The system can slash the whole amount staked if warranted. At the end of the year a validator will be rewarded based on the interest the network offers at the time (5%-15% reportedly at time of writing).

For me, this means I must look for a different crypto currency that runs on the proof of work mechanism. I have landed on Ravencoin (RVN). This coin is currently, at the time of this writing, priced at .03336 CAD and can be purchased on the Binance exchange. I decided that in anticipation of this merge, I would switch to RVN on two of my mining rigs (7 Graphics cards, 165 MH).

At the current price, I mine 1000 RVN coins per week ($48.03). This for me is to test the climate of this blockchain to see if it will be profitable when I consider power costs. This rig, according to mining calculators, would earn about $.90 more than the current RVN coin.

Interesting thought- the number of Ethereum miners is over 120,000 active miners. Active miners for RVN coin are sitting at around 8600 active miners. When this merge happens will the number of miners moving to all these “Alt” coin networks tank all mining profits for the little guy? Only time will tell.

If you’re looking for more information about the merge you can visit https://ethereum.org/