Hey guys i have been mining Eth for a while now and by the time i started there was a lot of disscussion about the POS and when would be implemented... Has far has i know ( please correct me if im wrong ) POS wont happen for another year right? But what about this Ice age thing on difficulty i hear so much? Will be something changed in order to keep miners on the network until POS? Thanks guys
Despite everyone pleading for early POS in 2017 - VB has always maintained 2018 would be the actual date for implementation.
The Ice Age is the friend of Ethereum Network's GPU rig backers, like the Youtuber MrYukonC!
In 2014, when Litecoin went over too ASICs, the people who came in the last few months were left nursing huge losses on new GPU rigs - everyone tried to sell off these GPUs at the same time in late spring of 2014 and the price of GPUs on 2nd hand market collapsed in Europe and the USA.
These people became
very upset and this damaged progress of
all crypto-currencies!
The Ice Age reduces daily block given out to owner's of rigs around every 15-20 days, which allows GPU rigs owners to calculate their electricity costs, 2nd hand resale value of their GPUs and then dispose of GPU asset should calculations show good window of opportunity to go early versus going late in the Ice Age.
Ice Age adds roughly 1.5 seconds difficulty onto block find times every 15-20 days to difficulty!
For example, in the UK:
R9 290 4GB overclocked to 1070mhz and 20% Powertune (Hawaii GPU): 30Mhs
2nd hand resale value on ebay of £140 to £190.
Power Usage is: 228watts
Electricity costs are £0.12 KWh.
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Power Cost per annum is: £250.357
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Net Earning without Ice Age is: £405.87
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With this card, going early makes more common sense than going late, because ICE AGE will definitely make this GPU uneconomic within 1 year.
Furthermore, Nvidia will be launching Volta next year, which is expected to see a 30-40% increase in hash output. So, that, will definitely bomb out a lot of older GPUs.
Because of the ICE AGE, people with cheaper electricity in the UK may choose to continue mining with this card - this has maintained the 2nd hand resale values of GPU assets because not everyone is selling off their GPUs in the same few weeks of this year or next year.
So, the Ethereum Foundation has taken the headache out of the POS, via the ICE AGE.
