Miners and ETH 2.0 – Where do they stand now

ambcrypto.com:

As we approach the Ethereum Merge, the crypto-community’s opinions have been more vocal than usual. The much-awaited ETH 2.0 will change the blockchain’s consensus mechanism to a Proof-of-Stake model, pushing ETH miners out of business. Apart from the chances of them quitting the mining industry, there is a possibility that they opt for a hard fork in the Ethereum network or also try to switch to a different blockchain. 

Recently, Hongcai “Chandler” Guo, a former ETH miner, mentioned in an interview that multiple Chinese Ethereum mining machine manufacturers reached out to him to initiate forking efforts. According to journalist Colin Wu, there are nearly $5 billion worth of graphics card mining machines and ASIC Ethereum mining machines (A11 E9) that need to find a way to continue mining after the Merge. 

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 29, 2022

Though the shift of ETH to a PoS mechanism will considerably reduce electricity consumption, miners are worried about how they will keep their operations going. For some, a hard fork that would allow them to continue mining the crypto is a good idea.

While there is much hype in the crypto-community regarding Ethereum 2.0, as always, the opinions are diverse. In fact, in a recent Twitter thread, MakerDAO pointed out that the Merge could do more harm than good.

• Minimal impact if all externally backed asset issuers support merge upgrade.

• If one or more