Ethereum Classic hash rate jumps 70% amid The Merge

Following migration of Ethereum to the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, the hash rate of the ‘original Ethereum’ Ethereum Classic rose to 110 TH/s. The daily increase was around 70%.

The price of ETC rose almost 5% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. The token led the top-20 by market capitalization after LEO.

In August, the largest Ethereum pool Ethermine warned clients that will not support any potential forks of the second-largest cryptocurrency on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm. As options for miners’ ongoing activity, the platform suggested switching to mining Ethereum Classic, Ravencoin (RVN), Ergo (ERGO) or Beam (BEAM).

The hash rates of the aforementioned coins also showed notable daily growth. Ergo’s hashrate rose from 32 TH/s to 80 TH/s — a 150% increase. Ravencoin’s network hashrate rose by about 75%, and Beam by roughly 225%.

Developers of the PoW fork of Ethereum (ETHW) announced the mainnet launch within 24 hours after The Merge. The project was launched by a group of miners led by Chandler Gao, who did not wish to abandon the Proof-of-Work algorithm.

In August, the head of the Ethereum Classic ecosystem organization ETC Cooperative, Bob Summerwill, in an open letter to Gao, doubted the fork’s feasibility. He proposed miners connect to the ETC network. In reply supporters of the project argued, among other points, that the blockchain would not be able to accommodate all the Ethereum power released.

According to 2Miners, before the merger the hash rate of the second-largest cryptocurrency stood at 740 TH/s. At the time of writing the combined hashrate of the four coins in Ethermine’s lineup is about 225 TH/s.

Analysts at JPMorgan suggested that ETC would become the main beneficiary of miner inflows after the Ethereum merge.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson criticised the cryptocurrency, calling it a ‘dead project’.

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