ETH Miners Generate $756M as August Revenue Ahead of The Merge

Going over monthly records, the discovery shows that Ethereum miners generated $756 million in revenue, a 37% increase from the $545 million secured in July. 

When analyzed, it was learned that just a little over $30 million from the August generated revenue was from transaction fees that are paid in Ethereum (ETH) to include transactions on the blockchain.

The others were block subsidies meant for miners. Speculatively, the increased revenue may have been a result of the slight increase in the price of ETH as against what it was in June and July.

This hike in ETH revenue comes right before the Merge, the blockchain’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism which is believed to be more effective. According to plan, the Merge is expected to go live on September 19th, therefore, August is the last full month of mining activities with PoW before a final shift to PoS. 

The Merge Goes Past PoW, Moves to PoS

One contrasting difference between the PoW and PoS consensus mechanisms is the method and strategies employed to mine the digital asset. For the PoW, miners jump into a competition to add hashes that match the current target block. The Ethereum miners who successfully adds the hash first will be rewarded with the ETH. 

Unlike in PoW, the PoS consensus mechanism only involves a group of interested validators that plunges their funds through staking into the blockchain. 

The network automatically carries out the mining exercise and rewards each validator according to the fund introduced into the system. 

Between September 10th and 20th, the transition to Beacon Chain PoS would have been initiated, leaving behind PoW mining. 

On the ETH blockchain, proof-of-work will no longer be activated, although the Bitcoin (BTC) network still makes use of the consensus mechanism. Not finally agreed upon, there are speculations that PoW forks of Ether will emerge after the Merge. Invariably if it does, it would be another source of income for the miners.

Noteworthy is the fact that the Merge will not reduce gas fees instead it will reduce the rate of carbon emission by up to 99.95%. Hence, the amount of energy consumed in mining exercises will be drastically reduced.