Confessions of a Miner 2: Is This The End of GPU Mining?

Mining Is More Popular Than Ever. Cryptocurrencies Conquer the World

I started mining in 2017. I stopped mining in 2020 when exchange rates fell. If you read my first article, you’d know that I was going to use GPUs that I wasn’t able to sell to build a few rigs and heat my country house with them. Those GPUs were completely worn out: 4GB and 8GB RX 580, a few 1050 Ti, and a couple of 1070 Ti cards. I’ve built two rigs that are still heating my small country house in winter. They do the job, but their aspect is extremely embarrassing (see below).

Had I been more inventive, they could have looked like this.

I kept following the 2Miners chat because it is the best channel for mining in Telegram. Crypto prices were going up and down. With each period of growth came a new wave of miners. Sadly, I noticed that many beginning miners are unwilling to dive deep into the subject anymore. People used to hang out on pages like this one to monitor the network, and now they barely understand what a bat file is. Luckily the community still has active expert miners. 2Miners contributors always say that one of the biggest advantages of cryptocurrencies is their transparency. I will try to write in simple terms so that it all makes sense to as many readers as possible.

Let’s open Ethereum’s network hashrate chart and click on ‘All-time’. The chart shows a hashrate – all the equipment involved in Ether mining in the present or past. I started mining in 2017 when the hash rate was a little over 30 Th/s. In 2020, when I sold almost all of my equipment, the hash rate reached 150 Th/s, which was 5x higher. At the beginning of summer 2022, the hash rate exceeded 1 Ph/s, which was 30x higher than in 2017. Back in 2017, only geeks were interested in mining. Today there are 30x more miners. Everybody is mining: housewives, car wash owners, you name it.

I sold my equipment in 2020. I struggled to sell Antminer S9 and L3+ ASICs even for $100–$200. Now imagine my frustration when the exchange rate went up in 2021, and people were selling those ASICs for $1,500 and more!

Ethereum (ETH) Shifts to PoS

You’ve probably heard that Ethereum is shifting to Proof-of-Stake. In simple terms, it will put an end to Ethereum mining.

There are many other coins to mine of course, but it’s the end of an era. Ether mining is supposed to stop on September 14. You can follow the countdown on this page. Look at the countdown called Mainnet. When the timer stops, it will be…