Learn how to – What to do with the GPU once used to mine ETH

Learn how to – What to do with the GPU once used to mine ETH.

Mining Ethereum was some months ago profitable until the Ethereum Merge put an end to this era. According to Digiconomist’s Ethereum Energy Consumption Index, before the upgrade, this blockchain’s annualised power consumption was comparable to Chile’s and its carbon footprint to that of Hong Kong. Now, its energy consumption has been reduced by ~99.99%. Upgrades like Shanghai followed, but these left Ethereum miners with little to do with their GPUs, or graphics processing units. 

The Merge’s primary purpose wasn’t price related but to make the Ethereum blockchain more efficient, scalable, and faster. If you were mining Ethereum, you had to stop and look for other ways to take advantage of this cryptocurrency. Assuming you chose to use it only as a means of portfolio investment diversification, you probably wonder when the crypto winter will end, what other cryptocurrencies might boom, or often check what is the price of Ethereum.

Aside from such metaphysical mysteries, one practical concern remains: What can you do with a shed’s worth of expensive GPUs? Miners now have to stake their currencies more in order to profit from the Ethereum network following the complete Ethereum transition. Your processors are likely lying dormant now that Ethereum switched from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), so let’s see how you can put them to good use.

Get the best bang for your buck

The Ethereum Merge unleashed a tsunami of GPUs, as mining is no longer the way to validate new blocks of transactions. Mining was simply transaction processing, in which a number of Ethereum transactions were packaged together and encrypted into a block. However, the encryption process was made artificially challenging, necessitating the use of millions of high-end graphics computers in the mining pool in order to process a block in a reasonable amount of time. Now, almost any computer can satisfy the hardware requirements as the artificial difficulty is removed owing to the PoS approach, eliminating the need for graphic card processing and related energy usage. 

The millions of expensive graphic cards used for this aren’t needed for the new PoS approach, so your processors could as well find their way into the used card market on venues like eBay. Miners have been forced to switch to alternative cryptocurrencies that can be mined on GPU, in a newer version, or to sell their equipment at a lower price. If you still need to sell your mining rigs, hurry up! Prices dropped immediately in miners’ attempts to sell their hardware, and the demand from buyers was limited. Amid the slowdown in crypto mining, graphic cards’ prices dropped in 2021. Because cryptocurrency mining is being reduced, the industry’s influence on the graphics card market will be reduced. But individuals who genuinely enjoy computer gaming might still look for graphic cards since they’re being sold and at more affordable prices. However, they’ll have to know if your processor is alright in terms of reliability (not to be damaged, overheated, or overlocked). GPU maintenance is done through regular cleaning. 

The shady case of repainted GPUs

Some Chinese crypto miners chose to go to immoral lengths to get rid of their heavily used mining GPUs now that they no longer serve this purpose. According to an investigation by Youtuber Iskandar Souza and GPU repair expert Paulo Gomes, they’re repainting them, tricking potential customers, and advertising them as new on retail sites. Chinese GPU owners began selling them in 2021, but some are unhappy with the MSRP price for used cards and are trying to sell them as new products. Discoloured chips, missing seals and stickers are signs that a GPU is old, so if you want to buy instead of sell yours, pay attention to these aspects.

Mine ETC

The developers of Ethereum Classic (ETC) created a platform to preserve the original Ethereum Blockchain. ETC now offers an alternative for the DAO bailout’s opponents. As of October last year, you couldn’t mine ETH anymore, but you could redirect your resources from ETH to ETC. 

Here’s what you need to mine ETC:

• A computer with a modern GPU or CPU. ETC is mined using Ethash, a PoW algorithm, designed to be memory-hard and resistant to ASICs.
• An ETC wallet address to receive mined coins
• A reliable internet connection
• Mining software. 

Use for a great cause 

Ethereum is no longer a profitable job, but there are other things to do with it. Video editing, 3D graphics rendering, and machine learning are feasible options. Computer graphics processors may also facilitate other interesting things, including high-octane password cracking, creating artificial hearts, protein folding for cancer research, big projects or foundations that need computational power, and the search for extra-terrestrial life.

What is the future of GPU mining?

The future of GPU mining is determined by miners’ intentions to mine alternative GPU-mineable coins.

Mining is the backbone of PoW cryptocurrencies and a decentralised consensus mechanism that required you to solve mathematical puzzles back when you mined Ethereum. It is widely used in crypto mining to get new tokens and validate transactions. It’s natural to wonder what’s left to do since mining Ethereum no longer exists. 

GPU can be a good fixed capital investment for graphic designing, video editing, and gaming, for instance. 

GPU owners can utilize their processors for mining various digital currencies when one blockchain changes to alternate consensus methods. ASICs, on the other hand, can’t be repurposed to mine alternative cryptocurrencies. Despite this limitation, Bitcoin is still the most profitable coin to mine with an ASIC but not a GPU. Interestingly, users will find that as Bitcoin’s price and value rises, the attractiveness of ASIC miners also increases due to the potential for greater returns. However, while ASICs are more energy-efficient and offer a higher hash rate compared to GPUs, the cost of setting them up makes them unappealing to solo miners.

Last but not least, consider letting your GPU go. If it has been used for more than 4 or 5 years, it means it has done its job. This is why many GPU possessors gift it to their friends instead of selling it on eBay.