Ethereum’s Hash Rate Records New ATH As PoS Migration Is Upcoming

Ethereum’s hash rate records a new ATH of 1.11 PH/s breaking the previous high of 1.08 PH/s set in early January so let’s read more today in our latest Ethereum news.

Over the past year, ETH increased in value and outperformed BTC in terms of returns with the rise of ETH making mining on the network more lucrative over time. This seems to have resulted in more miners and resulted in an expansion of the network hash rate. Ethereum’s hash rate records a new high and it will likely hit a new high in the near future. The new ATH was reached previously when the ETH price dropped from $4460 to $3160.

We've removed all uses of 'Eth2' terminology on https://t.co/v9gxnMUQFz

Find out why 👇 https://t.co/84uJXSD4q1

— ethereum.org (@ethdotorg) January 24, 2022

When the hash rate rises, it shows that more nodes are joining the network and that the network is becoming much more decentralized. Such an increase could help cement the blockchain security but if the hash rate is too low, it could be detrimental to the network because there will be a few nodes only and will result in transactions and less security. Ethereum’s network participants last year implemented the Arrow Glacier upgrade that pushed back the switch to PoS. It also means that Ethereum mining has a long way to go before it comes to an end so a transition from a proof of work algorithm to the Proof of stake is required before reaching eTH 2. at that moment, the difficulty bomb will be set and will shut down the ETH mining and put the network into an “ice age” that will last until the swtich is completed.

After the switch to POs, however, ETH will not be mined anymore and transactions will be validated by staking on other nodes. The network’s hash rate increased past one petahash and the number is equivalent to 1000 TH/s which shows that the hash rate of the network increased by more than 66,000% since March 2016 when it was recorded on the network. The Ethereum Foundation criticized the branding of ETH2 and said it did not reflect on what was going on with the network during the upgrades. ETH2 and the terminology used to distinguish a PoS chain from a PoW chain could be phased out in the future.

Among the reasons for the shift include a bad mental model for the users, inclusion, and security. The switch from a PoW and PoS consensus mechanism is scheduled to happen in the second or third quarter of the year.