Some of the largest Ethereum miners in the world are planning to shift their computing power towards cloud computing and artificial Intelligence (AI) to prepare for the network’s transition to a new type of consensus mechanism, the Merge.Ethereum’s upgrade will eliminate the need for expensive and bulky data centers that miners would like to repurpose.
The Merge will take place between Sept. 13-16 . It will replace proof-of work (PoW), with proof-of stake (PoS), and will decrease the network’s energy use by at minimum 99.95%.
Canadian crypto miner Hive Blockchain, (HIVE), was skeptical that the Merge would ever happen last month. stated on Tuesday it was testing other coins with its fleets graphics processing units (GPUs), as well as cloud computing or AI applications.
Nvidia GPUs can be found in data centers
The miner has an existing pilot project at a “Level 3” data centre, where some of the Nvidia GPU cards can be used for cloud computing. The company stated in a press release that the cards [A40] could be used for cloud computing, AI applications, rendering for engineering applications, as well as scientific modelling of fluid dynamics.
Hut 8 (HUT) is another Canadian miner. It has been diversifying into high performance computing since the beginning of the year. Also Tuesday stated that its latest batch installed GPUs will “pivot on demand to offer Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to customers.”
Ethereum miners could move to ethereum classic
There is a lot of speculation about what the Ethereum miners will do following the Merge. One theory suggests that miners will move their mining rigs over to Ethereum Classic (ETC) after the Merge. This is the splinter network created from the 2016 hardfork.
It was the result of a hack that saw $60 million stolen from one the first decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) on the Ethereum network.
Ethereum Classic is now a potential winner ahead Ethereum’s Merge event, which will be held later in the month. network metrics have risen to lifetime highs, and ETC tokens are gaining value in an otherwise stable crypto market.
As of Tuesday morning, the Ethereum Classic hashrate had risen to 48.64 terahashes/second (TH/s), whereas ETC tokens gained 28% in just 24 hours.
Hive’s share price fell by more than 5% while Hut 8’s stock dropped about 3%. This was in line with the rest of the mining peers.
