The Ethereum Merge is slated for Sept. 15, that will begin to see the Ethereum blockchain change from its current proof-of-work (Bang) mining consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS).
The Merge has been touted among the greatest upgrades for that Ethereum blockchain because it is needed the network move to some more energy-efficient method of verifying transactions and eliminate Bang mining completely. Using the Merge date approaching, Ether (ETH) miner’s balance has touched a brand new four-year high.
Based on Oklink data, the total amount of Ethereum miner addresses exceeded 260,000 ETH with as many as 261,848 ETH worth over $415 million in the current cost. Miner accumulation arrived at a brand new four-year high concentrating on the same levels seen last in April 2018.
Miners’ growing accumulation of ETH continues to be related to a couple of factors, the very first being anticipation of the cost boost in the wake from the key upgrade. Even though many pundits have known as the Merge a “buy the rumor then sell the news” type of event, miners’ accumulation signifies growing bullish sentiment.
Another major factor may be the hard fork. A lot of the ETH miners are in support of a tough fork to help keep the Bang chain alive and continue mining. Thus, in situation of the hard fork, these miners possessing ETH would also get an airdrop from the forked token. While the need for the forked token may not appreciate in sync using the primary ETH chain, however, it might still ensure additional capital.
A forked Bang token gets the backing of the couple of leading crypto exchanges like Bitfinex while the kind of Binance have stated when the interest in the forked token could be large enough, they’d not mind listing it.
Related: 5 Best misconceptions concerning the anticipated Ethereum upgrade
Yohannes Christian, Research Analyst at leading crypto exchange Bitrue, told Cointelegraph:
”The ‘Difficulty Bomb’ can make mining unprofitable following the Merge. Before happens, miners are exploring all avenues to cart away with as numerous Ether as they possibly can when they still have time.“
“As such, more computing sources are now being dedicated to the mining of Ethereum which makes up about what’s converted to some high miner balance,“ he added.
The Merge has produced a dilemma of sorts for that miners because the move would eliminate Bang mining completely, but maintaining your Bang chain alive using a hard fork won’t guarantee an affection in cost with a lot of the community already supporting the primary PoS chain.