What to do with all that equipment? How some unemployed cryptocurrency miners are now powering generative algorithms
<p><a href="https://medium.com/enrique-dans/countdown-to-the-merge-877991581681?sk=f1e92263b8a7017d67002d64a393d61c" rel="noopener">In mid-September</a>, the Ethereum community transitioned its consensus algorithm from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_work" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">proof-of-work (PoW)</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_stake" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">proof-of-stake (PoS)</a> in a process dubbed <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/merge/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Merge</a> that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/29/cryptocurrency-ethereum-plans-to-cut-carbon-emissions-by-99-per-cent-with-upgrade" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">reduced the power consumption of the Ethereum network by 99. 95%</a>, and sounded the death knell for many blockchain miners. Now, anyone with a few coins, an average computer that could run a basic version of Linux could, simply by consigning a few ethers (thirty-two in theory, but there are services that allow you to put half or a quarter), <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/staking/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">obtain a virtually risk-free return close to a very attractive 8%</a>.</p>
<h2><a href="https://medium.com/enrique-dans/countdown-to-the-merge-877991581681?source=post_page-----d0250232ed3c--------------------------------" rel="noopener follow" target="_blank">Countdown to The Merge</a></h2>
<h3><a href="https://medium.com/enrique-dans/countdown-to-the-merge-877991581681?source=post_page-----d0250232ed3c--------------------------------" rel="noopener follow" target="_blank">Right now, if you Google The Merge, you’ll find a countdown to what may be a much more important event than many people…</a></h3>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/enrique-dans/countdown-to-the-merge-877991581681?source=post_page-----d0250232ed3c--------------------------------" rel="noopener follow" target="_blank">medium.com</a></p>
<p>The consequence was immediate: the large GPU farms destined to solve the complex cryptographic equations characteristic of the proof-of-work <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/bye-bye-miners-how-ethereums-big-change-will-work/2022/08/23/c5ff724c-22e7-11ed-a72f-1e7149072fbc_story.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">no longer had anything to offer to an Ethereum network that didn’t needed them any longer</a>, and had to find other things to do. Some estimates suggest that, at its peak, Ethereum mining came to support more than a million people using equipment valued at $10 billion.</p>
<p>The possibility of mining other cryptocurrencies was there, but with the prospect of diminishing returns in an increasingly saturated market like bitcoin, in which miners, in any case, will lose most of their appeal when the last bitcoin is mined (<a href="https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/assets/btc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">more than 92% of them have already been mined</a>) and have to survive on transactions alone, and in environments with little promise in the medium and long term like shitcoins, <a href="https://decrypt.co/109136/how-ethereum-miners-plan-to-pivot-after-the-merge" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">the difficulty was obvious</a>. Some, after <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/no-one-is-profitable-gpu-mining-faces-dark-days-after-ethereum-merge" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">starting to lose money</a>, simply ended up <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-14/world-s-biggest-ether-mining-firm-to-shut-down-after-the-merge" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">shutting down their servers</a>.</p>
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