Most PoW miners intend to mine Ergo, not Ravencoin or Ethereum Classic post-Merge

A Twitter poll by node operator @cryptovium revealed that most Ethereum miners intend to mine Ergo after the Merge.

“With the imminent #PoS $ETH merge, I’m curious what all the #miners out there are planning on moving their rigs to.“

The Ethereum Merge is imminent

Recent estimates give September 19 as the date the Merge will occur. The highly anticipated event will combine the existing Proof-of-Work (PoW) settlement layer with the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Beacon Chain – thereby eliminating the need for miners to validate transactions and uphold the system.

The Ethereum protocol will become more energy efficient, with a 99.95% energy consumption reduction. Advocates also say the Merge will improve efficiency and scalability and bring a deflationary aspect through reduced token issuance.

Peak-to-trough gains since mid-July came in at +94%, suggesting investors expect the price of ETH to skyrocket further. However, whether the Merge is priced in or not is a matter of debate.

In the run-up to the event, Analyst Miles Deutscher identified four variables that could impact the Merge. These are the possibility of delay, the ramifications of a PoW fork, the censorship resistance of the PoS chain, especially in light of the Tornado Cash sanctions, and the staking yield after merging.

4 major $ETH Merge variables have arisen:

Will it be delayed?
What % will a POW fork constitute?
Is OFAC risk a real concern following $TORN?
What will post-merge yield be?

: All of them lead to one final question: Is The Merge priced in? This thread will help you decide.

— Miles Deutscher (@milesdeutscher) August 22, 2022

Ergo is the number choice for miners

Aside from the unanswered questions posed by Deutscher, the upheaval from the Merge puts existing Ethereum miners in a predicament – what GPU-compatible coins should they mine instead?

A poll conducted by @cryptovium listed four options, Ravencoin, FLUX, Ergo, and Ethereum Classic. Of the 4,895 participants, Ergo was the most popular choice, pulling in almost half of the votes at 45.5%. FLUX was next, taking 27.6%, followed by Ravencoin at 19%, and last was Ethereum Classic, which accounted for just 8%.

At writing, six hours remain before the poll closes. Nonetheless, Ergo’s lead over FLUX is a dominant one.

The results were surprising as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently endorsed Ethereum Classic as the PoW chain miners should switch to.

“It’s a very welcoming community and I think they’ll definitely welcome Proof of Work fans…If you like Proof of Work, you should go use Ethereum Classic. It’s a totally fine chain.”

One user questioned the poll’s validity by asking if @cryptovium’s follower base would act as an echo chamber and skew the results. @cryptovium conceded this might be the case. However, he pointed out that polls often draw in”other communities.”

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