Ethereum Difficulty

[JohnyBitcoin]

I know this may be a simple question, but here it is.

Why is the ethereum difficulty so high now?  Is it because of EIP1559?
http://eb3d.co/Eth_Difficulty.JPG

[miner29]

Profitability.  Eth is the most profitable coin to gpu mine and so EVERYBODY is mining it.

Thus Difficulty rising.

[Vann]

The difficulty of a coin is correlated to the profitability. The higher the profitability, speculative or otherwise, the more miners will join the network in seek of profit. Some will move from mining other coins. Others will come back online and others build more rigs with the hope of recovering their capital investment before the difficulty gets too high. Once that happens and profitability goes down, the miners with the highest recurring expenses are the first to go offline.

With transactions and gas prices being at an ATH, along with the price, instead of the standard 2 ETH per block, miners are receiving an average of over 3 ETH per block and as much as >9 ETH, which is a big reason why it's currently profitable to mine ETH. EIP 1559 lowers the mining rewards by burning the transaction fees instead of including them in the block reward, but it also reduces the ETH supply inflation from mining, which tends to cause downward pressure on the ETH price as miners sell their ETH to pay for expenses. Hopefully leading up to EIP 1559 implementation the ETH price will keep up with current profitability, otherwise it could be a rough time for miners once the rewards are reduced.

[batsonxl]

Follow this graph : https://etherscan.io/chart/hashrate
Hashrate 520TH and keep growing it means diff also growing everyday. Hashrates grows because there is more people joining in. So means will be again living for surviving? Anyway i want thank for ethereum for gifts that they made for all miners now 4 month and keep giving.

[adaseb]

Most likely given this huge hashrate, there is some mega efficient and fast ETH ASIC out there that is being put into production. This is similar to what happened back in 2018 when the hashrate went up so fast that they weren't producing GPUs fast enough to account for the increase. Then 3 months later we learn't of Bitmains ETH ASIC.

Given how there is a chip shortage and given how most GPUs on the planet are mining ETH there is no other explanation for this huge increase in hashrate. Another explanation can be that maybe there is some exploit similar to ASICboost for BTC. Maybe some farm found a way to get more hashrate out of their current GPUs so instead of mining at 30MH/s they maybe mine at 40MH/s with some GPUBoost for ETH. This is purely speculation however there is definately some farm out there which is at a huge advantage because this hashrate increase is unbelievable.

[bitquad]

Most likely given this huge hashrate, there is some mega efficient and fast ETH ASIC out there that is being put into production. This is similar to what happened back in 2018 when the hashrate went up so fast that they weren't producing GPUs fast enough to account for the increase. Then 3 months later we learn't of Bitmains ETH ASIC.

Given how there is a chip shortage and given how most GPUs on the planet are mining ETH there is no other explanation for this huge increase in hashrate. Another explanation can be that maybe there is some exploit similar to ASICboost for BTC. Maybe some farm found a way to get more hashrate out of their current GPUs so instead of mining at 30MH/s they maybe mine at 40MH/s with some GPUBoost for ETH. This is purely speculation however there is definately some farm out there which is at a huge advantage because this hashrate increase is unbelievable.

I have read somewhere the ETH developers were getting their hands on ASIC miners. Not sure if this is reliable or not. They have the money to do that if they wanted to. All this talk of a 51% attack probably made them concerned. So they are probably willing to pay to get enough hash rate to make sure this could not happen after they implement EIP 1559.

[arielbit]

LOL 3090 feels old 

[btcshiner]

Most likely given this huge hashrate, there is some mega efficient and fast ETH ASIC out there that is being put into production. This is similar to what happened back in 2018 when the hashrate went up so fast that they weren't producing GPUs fast enough to account for the increase. Then 3 months later we learn't of Bitmains ETH ASIC.

Given how there is a chip shortage and given how most GPUs on the planet are mining ETH there is no other explanation for this huge increase in hashrate. Another explanation can be that maybe there is some exploit similar to ASICboost for BTC. Maybe some farm found a way to get more hashrate out of their current GPUs so instead of mining at 30MH/s they maybe mine at 40MH/s with some GPUBoost for ETH. This is purely speculation however there is definately some farm out there which is at a huge advantage because this hashrate increase is unbelievable.

I have read somewhere the ETH developers were getting their hands on ASIC miners. Not sure if this is reliable or not. They have the money to do that if they wanted to. All this talk of a 51% attack probably made them concerned. So they are probably willing to pay to get enough hash rate to make sure this could not happen after they implement EIP 1559.

The guy who first suggested EIP 1559 has an agreement for asics that I think I heard was in place shortly before he suggested it.

I also think that the concerns you stated may be why linzhi never actually publicly sold their miners.  They had tapout I think in late 2018 and ordered 38 wafers for that run of machines and never publicly stating how much more they ordered or having talked about new development in their chips. 

If a company spends $30m USD they can get around 1,600gh/s likely on ETH of the new Nvidia mining gpu's.  This is probably the lower end ones as delivery is fairly quick.

https://www.coindesk.com/hut8-nvidia-mining-gpu-purchase

Supposedly the GPU that runs Nvidia's A100 can do 210 mhs at around 250w.  Maybe all the University's and data centers that have these are also mining but still the difficulty has been going up significantly and consistently.  With the difficulty the average person has getting a new gpu it's likely most of this now has to be industrial mining.

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-may-be-about-to-launch-a-dollar3000-gpu-that-puts-the-rtx-3090-in-the-shade/

This card at $3,000 might be intriguing and begs the question what else does Nvidia have in the pipeline at the $10k range?
 

[arielbit]

Most likely given this huge hashrate, there is some mega efficient and fast ETH ASIC out there that is being put into production. This is similar to what happened back in 2018 when the hashrate went up so fast that they weren't producing GPUs fast enough to account for the increase. Then 3 months later we learn't of Bitmains ETH ASIC.

Given how there is a chip shortage and given how most GPUs on the planet are mining ETH there is no other explanation for this huge increase in hashrate. Another explanation can be that maybe there is some exploit similar to ASICboost for BTC. Maybe some farm found a way to get more hashrate out of their current GPUs so instead of mining at 30MH/s they maybe mine at 40MH/s with some GPUBoost for ETH. This is purely speculation however there is definately some farm out there which is at a huge advantage because this hashrate increase is unbelievable.

I have read somewhere the ETH developers were getting their hands on ASIC miners. Not sure if this is reliable or not. They have the money to do that if they wanted to. All this talk of a 51% attack probably made them concerned. So they are probably willing to pay to get enough hash rate to make sure this could not happen after they implement EIP 1559.

The guy who first suggested EIP 1559 has an agreement for asics that I think I heard was in place shortly before he suggested it.

I also think that the concerns you stated may be why linzhi never actually publicly sold their miners.  They had tapout I think in late 2018 and ordered 38 wafers for that run of machines and never publicly stating how much more they ordered or having talked about new development in their chips. 

If a company spends $30m USD they can get around 1,600gh/s likely on ETH of the new Nvidia mining gpu's.  This is probably the lower end ones as delivery is fairly quick.

https://www.coindesk.com/hut8-nvidia-mining-gpu-purchase

Supposedly the GPU that runs Nvidia's A100 can do 210 mhs at around 250w.  Maybe all the University's and data centers that have these are also mining but still the difficulty has been going up significantly and consistently.  With the difficulty the average person has getting a new gpu it's likely most of this now has to be industrial mining.

https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-may-be-about-to-launch-a-dollar3000-gpu-that-puts-the-rtx-3090-in-the-shade/

This card at $3,000 might be intriguing and begs the question what else does Nvidia have in the pipeline at the $10k range?
 

so my prediction of 200mhs per card for hbm2e for amd will be competed by nvidia a100 hbm card with 200mhs too hehe.

amd should optimize the hbm2e card for ethash to outclass these a100's 

[FP91G]

Mining is turning into a business for large companies. The heshrate is growing very much, so miners with a small number of video cards will soon not be profitable to mine.
Even now, so that the profit does not decrease, you need to buy new video cards every 2 weeks.
And also, many manufacturers produce special video cards for mining, so the Ethereum hash rate will grow rapidly.

[arielbit]

Mining is turning into a business for large companies. The heshrate is growing very much, so miners with a small number of video cards will soon not be profitable to mine.
Even now, so that the profit does not decrease, you need to buy new video cards every 2 weeks.
And also, many manufacturers produce special video cards for mining, so the Ethereum hash rate will grow rapidly.

in the not so distant past, small miners got rekt...now in the not so distant future large companies which are "into mining" will get rekt LOL 

[greg777777]

Some statistics of pools and solomining farms. https://ibb.co/3RvQ1bW
So more and more creating new solominig farms.

[adaseb]

Basically its going to be more skewed towards the large farms instead of small miners just like it has been for years with BTC. Back in 2015 or so you could buy an Antminer S5 or S7 and mine at home and make a profit. These days these small miners can't compete because these ASICs are crazy overpriced. Only the people with connections in China and cheap power are the ones buying them.

Pretty much going to be the same story with ETH. Only the people who got connections with the GPU companies are going to be the only ones to survive and the ones with access to cheap power. Hence it will become more and more centralized just like BTC mining is. Where the hashpower is in the hands of a dozen or so people.

[mak013]

I can`t say anything about big miners. As for me - nothing changed. I`m still mining, getting nice profit and rather happy. Big miners have more opportunities but yet they have more problem they have to solve.
All interesting will be after dump start.

[Looper_U]

People won't leave Ethereum alone  for now at least because it's still the most profitable coin to mine today, imagine how costly graphic cards are today yet some are still buying just because they can't take their eye off mining profitability

[FP91G]

Mining is turning into a business for large companies. The heshrate is growing very much, so miners with a small number of video cards will soon not be profitable to mine.
Even now, so that the profit does not decrease, you need to buy new video cards every 2 weeks.
And also, many manufacturers produce special video cards for mining, so the Ethereum hash rate will grow rapidly.

in the not so distant past, small miners got rekt...now in the not so distant future large companies which are "into mining" will get rekt LOL 

Home miners suffered losses in 2015 and 2018, when the profit from mining was very small. This situation may repeat itself and then large companies will also suffer losses. I read the news of large investors in mining, but they do not invest most of their funds and they do not plan to sell cryptocurrency at current prices.
Companies can afford a small loss for several years, and a home miner does not always have this opportunity.

[arielbit]

Mining is turning into a business for large companies. The heshrate is growing very much, so miners with a small number of video cards will soon not be profitable to mine.
Even now, so that the profit does not decrease, you need to buy new video cards every 2 weeks.
And also, many manufacturers produce special video cards for mining, so the Ethereum hash rate will grow rapidly.

in the not so distant past, small miners got rekt...now in the not so distant future large companies which are "into mining" will get rekt LOL 

Home miners suffered losses in 2015 and 2018, when the profit from mining was very small. This situation may repeat itself and then large companies will also suffer losses. I read the news of large investors in mining, but they do not invest most of their funds and they do not plan to sell cryptocurrency at current prices.
Companies can afford a small loss for several years, and a home miner does not always have this opportunity.

it is the same, only the numbers are bigger with the "large investors".

the only exception is if they are like tesla or microstrategy that decided to mine instead of buying, more like a HODL strategy.

[CrossroadBTC]

Mining is turning into a business for large companies. The heshrate is growing very much, so miners with a small number of video cards will soon not be profitable to mine.
Even now, so that the profit does not decrease, you need to buy new video cards every 2 weeks.
And also, many manufacturers produce special video cards for mining, so the Ethereum hash rate will grow rapidly.

in the not so distant past, small miners got rekt...now in the not so distant future large companies which are "into mining" will get rekt LOL 

Home miners suffered losses in 2015 and 2018, when the profit from mining was very small. This situation may repeat itself and then large companies will also suffer losses. I read the news of large investors in mining, but they do not invest most of their funds and they do not plan to sell cryptocurrency at current prices.
Companies can afford a small loss for several years, and a home miner does not always have this opportunity.

This is why I sold half of my GPUs right now, almost all my rx580s are sold off around 400$ to 460$ simply because I wasn't sure about what will happen soon most especially after EIP1559 update, ive make back some good money with the cards before selling and I'm keeping the NVIDIAs

[batsonxl]

It will stop in simple crash just simple like that. No more hashrate grow because it will reach the point were mining gets not profitable, it is like summer and winter. in winter you must survive. Even big mining farms will stop mining because even for them it will not be enough pay bills. I hope it will not crash because i really want last bull market long as possible.

[mak013]

It will stop in simple crash just simple like that. No more hashrate grow because it will reach the point were mining gets not profitable, it is like summer and winter. in winter you must survive. Even big mining farms will stop mining because even for them it will not be enough pay bills. I hope it will not crash because i really want last bull market long as possible.

I heard it to much times. But i still mining and feel good. Someone can keep some profit to pay bills when the dump comes. There are many ways to continue mining and get profit but i still hear "mining is down"