Ethereum Classic Hash Rate Surges 200% Ahead of Ethereum Merge

According to data from mining pool 2miners, Ethereum Classic’s hash rate has experienced a 200% growth in the last 30 days, jumping to now at its all-time high of 64 TH/s from 30 TH/s on August 15.

Ethereum Classic has hit an all-time high hash rate of 65.49 terahashes per second (TH/s), having grown more than 40% during September ahead of The Merge.

Hash rate refers to the computational power used to mine a cryptocurrency on a proof-of-work blockchain. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic, and Ether (before the merge) use a proof-of-work system, which requires lots of powerful computers and energy to process transactions.

Today, Ethereum is set to make its long-awaited shift from its proof-of-work consensus to an energy-friendly proof-of-stake blockchain consensus mechanism.

Ethereum’s move to shut down its proof-of-work consensus is set to leave Ether miners with potentially nothing to do. So, miners have announced their intent to migrate to Ethereum Classic, amongst several other proof-of-work blockchains.

These miners plan to mine Ethereum Classic and other compatible coins like Ravencoin. According to 2Miners, mining on Ethereum Classic and others like Ravencoin and Ergo is the “safest post-Merge strategy” at least in the first few days after the Ethereum Merge event.

“Currently, the most profitable coins after Ethereum are Ravencoin, Firo, Cortex, Ergo, Aeternity, Beam, Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum Classic, and Callisto,” 2Miners elaborated.

The Merge Getting Ready

The mass migration of crypto miners to Ethereum Classic has been one of the major driving forces pushing its hashrate to reach new highs.

As a result, the Ethereum Classic’s native cryptocurrency (ETC) was also up by 7.53%, trading at $38.12 at the time of writing.

In July, AntPool, a mining pool based in China and owned by Bitmain, signalled support for Ethereum Classic and injected a $10 million investment in the ecosystem. Ethermine, the world's largest Ether (ETH) mining pool, also announced support for Ethereum Classic.

Ethereum Classic’s algorithm, Ethash is compatible with equipment used for mining Ethereum. Due to this, ETC can be mined using the same GPU and ASIC machines designed for Ethereum mining.

Ethereum is about to change its consensus from proof of work to proof of stake, an update called The Merge. The upgrade is estimated to take place around 4:23 UTC on Thursday, late into the evening of September 15.