Ethereum Classic and Ravencoin's Hashrate Nearly Doubles After Merge

Computing power on the Ethereum Classic and Ravencoin blockchain networks, or hashrate, nearly doubled a few hours after mining was rendered obsolete on the Ethereum network that underpins ether (ETH), the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Earlier on Thursday, the Ethereum network switched from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm to proof-of-stake (PoS). This move, known as the Merge, was planned years in advance but faced many delays.

Ergo also more than doubled, from 22.42 terahash/second (TH/s) around 6 a.m. UTC on Thursday, to almost 70 TH/s at around 2 p.m. UTC, according to mining pool 2Miners.com.

The Merge put an end to the need of miners to keep up the network using thousands of computers. Miners who had invested in hardware to mine ether are now likely looking for other uses for their hardware, and PoW tokens like Ethereum Classic's ETC and Ravencoin's RVN are among the available options.

CoinDesk Special Coverage: The Ethereum Merge

Ethereum Classic was formed after the DAO hack in 2016, which prompted a hard network fork that split the Ethereum blockchain into two. The original chain continued as Ethereum Classic, while the new one was called Ethereum.

The hashrate on Ethereum Classic, which continues with proof-of-work, grew from 70.5 terahash/second (TH/s) at 6 a.m. UTC on Thursday, before the Merge was finalized, to 158.3 TH/s at 1 p.m. on the same day, data from CoinWarz shows. On Ravencoin, the hashrate grew from 8.9 Th/s to 15.9 TH/s in the same time period.

Beam (BEAM) has almost tripled in the past 24 hours. Other PoW tokens that already have a sizable mining community including monero (XMR), litecoin (LTC) and zcash (ZEC) don't show any identifiable trends in the run up or after the Merge.

Read more: Ether, Ethereum Classic See Volatile Trading Amid Successful Ethereum Merge

UPDATE (Sept. 15, 13:40 UTC): Adds additional background in fourth paragraph.

UPDATE (Sept. 15, 15:40 UTC): Adds details about Ergo in third paragraph.