The State of Bitcoin and Ethereum Mining in 10 Charts
It's been a rollercoaster year for Bitcoin and Ethereum mining: Here is what the data shows.
Mar 23, 2022 at 5:35 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/WTTUELYGZRDIRLOM3UFKTIRCZY.jpg)
(CoinDesk Research, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance)
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The past year has been a rollercoaster for the two largest and most influential blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitcoin mining underwent a seismic shift in the late spring of 2021 as China forced miners to shut down. The following migration of hashrate has changed the landscape of bitcoin mining indelibly.
This piece is part of CoinDesk's Mining Week.
Ethereum, for its part, is in the process of making a move away from proof-of-work mining altogether, as it prepares for the Merge. Sometime in mid-2022, it will switch to a new proof-of-stake validation process. The effects of this impending change are already being felt by Ethereum miners, especially since the London hard fork of August 2021, which brought in a new fee mechanism.
What follows is a snapshot album of the state of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining at this pivotal time for both blockchains.
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