Ethereum Classic Mining After Merge

If you don’t want to read the full article, the video below goes over everything written.

So we all know the Ethereum merge is coming in a few days and many miners will be switching from Ethereum to Ethereum Classic to keep mining. I’m going to be diving into this switching of coins to see what graphics card will perform the best and what the profitability is compared to Ethereum. Then I’ll be going over ASIC miners for Ethereum Classic that can potentially switch over if they receive firmware updates.

Best GPU’s For Mining

Let’s start off with the most efficient cards for Ethereum Classic. So if you’re thinking that Ethereum Classic is the best long term shot for mining then you’ll want the most efficient cards for your rigs. There’s a few options and we will go over each one now. First I want to start with the RTX 3060Ti, on ethash you can expect around 60–65 MH/s depending on the overclocks used and the memory type of the card. Typically it consumes around 120w-130w deping on the power limit of the card. This gives us an efficiency of around 0.5 MH/w, this is great efficiency as many cards tend to be around 0.3 MH/w. So on the Ethereum network you can expect to make around $1.30 in revenue per day, obviously this amount does not factor in electricity cost but just gives the overall revenue. This amount can also vary depending on the price of Ethereum at the time. Now when we look at the profits from Ethereum Classic we can see a revenue of around $0.70. This means you’re taking a 46% hit in revenue when switching from ETH to ETC.

The next card on the list is the RTX 3070, on ethash you can expect around 60–65 MH/s again, however this card consumes slightless energy than the 3060Ti, it has a power draw between 110w-120w. This gives a higher efficiency of 0.54 MH/w. As I said these numbers will vary for overclock settings as well. On Ethereum you can expect a revenue of $1.30 and on Ethereum Classic you can expect a revenue of $0.70, the same as on the 3060Ti but the efficiency will be lower for the electricity cost. Normally I stick to having Nvidia rigs separated from AMD cards because it makes it easier to configure for one card type.

The next card on the list is the Radeon 6800. These cards have been very efficient for a while now and we will see this in the figures. You can push this card to around 68 MH/s using overclocks and it pulls around 105w. This gives it an efficiency of 0.64 MH/w. On Ethereum you can expect to make around $1.50 in revenue, and when mining on Ethereum Classic you can expect revenue of $0.80. The next card is also the upgraded version of this card, that being the Radeon 6800XT. You can push this card with overclocks to 70 MH/s, with a power draw of 105w. This makes it slightly more efficient than the 6800 at 0.645 MH/w. On Ethereum you can expect to make around $1.60 and on Ethereum Classic you can expect around $0.85 per day.

The last card that I would recommend for efficiency is the A2000 from Nvidia. These cards don’t necessarily bring in the most per day but they are super efficient and can have copper mods to make the efficiency higher as well. You can get up to 50 MH/s at a power draw of only 72w. This gives it the highest efficiency of any card on the market at 0.71 MH/w. On Ethereum we can expect a revenue of $0.84 per day, then when we switch we can expect $0.45. So not the greatest revenue but the best efficiency.

So the list of efficiency goes like this:

• A2000 at 0.710
• Radeon 6800 at 0.645
• Radeon 6800XT at 0.640
• RTX 3070 at 0.540
• RTX 3060Ti at 0.500

Revenue per day:

• Radeon 6800XT at $1.60 for ETH — $0.85 ETC
• Radeon 6800 at $1.50 for ETH — $0.80 ETC
• RTX 3070 at $1.30 for ETH — $0.70 ETC
• RTX 3060Ti at $1.30 for ETH — $0.70 ETC
• A2000 at $0.84 for ETH — $0.45 ETC

ASIC Miners For ETC

There are many types of ASIC’s on the market but we aren’t sure about the switch from Ethereum to Ethereum Classic. This would require a firmware update for these ASIC’s. Let’s start off with the Antminer E9, this currently can only mine Ethereum and makes a large profit on that network. However Bitmain have said that they will be releasing an update which will allow this ASIC to switch over to Ethereum Classic. The profit per day on this miner is $56 per day but when it switches we will probably see a decrease of around 50% in profits, which means we are looking at a profitability of $25 per day if you’re able to switch over to Ethereum Classic. I believe this would be the highest hashrate from any ASIC miner on the market. The only downside is the price, as of right now you can buy one of these for around $12,000. Which means the ROI on this ASIC will be around 1 year after it switches to ethereum classic, it’s also the loudest miner available.

The next ASIC is the iPollo V1 Classic. Most iPollo miners tend to produce very good profits and right now it sits at the top of the profit list for Ethereum Classic ASIC’s. It brings in $15 a day in profits but the iPollo team might have plans to take the iPollo Miners on Ethereum and try to switch them over to Ethereum Classic. The top iPollo miner makes a profit per day of $73 which when switched over could produce profits of around $40 per day. The big factor is the price of this miner, although the V1 Classic brings in $15 a day it also has a very steep price point which is at $8,000. For the profit it makes, that gives a ROI of around a year and a half. This is more time than that of the Antminer E9 but if you have less to spend then you could go with the V1 Classic

Lastly we have a range of ASIC’s from Jasminer, this is the X4 series. All of these miners can switch from Ethereum to Ethereum Classic so the transition will be easy for any of these miners. The most profitable X4 is the main one which can bring up to $53 per day on Ethereum and $25 on Ethereum Classic. However the price of these are way too high right now at $20,000 per miner. This price needs to come down a lot more before it would be viable to return on investment. Right now the ROI for the X4 on Ethereum Classic sits at 2 years, that is a long time to ROI on the miner. The next in the X4 series is the X4–1U, this is a relatively cheap miner compared to the X4 with a price point of $3,500. It has a smaller profitability of $5 per day in Ethereum Classic. This makes the ROI a bit longer because it’s such low profits, right now it would take a year and a half. Because it’s way cheaper than the X4 it’s a good pick for someone looking to get into mining on a smaller scale. The next ASIC from the X4 series is the X4 Brick, this is a very small miner and is basically the entry level into ASIC mining. This little miner can only bring in $0.66 per day in profits, this is because it has a small hashrate of 65 MH/s. This is the same as an RTX 3060Ti, but this miner is way more efficient than the RTX 3060Ti. It has a price point of $700 which gives it an ROI of only 15 Months. Definity a good entry into ASIC mining but also a way to keep mining Ethereum Classic when the merge hits. The last miner in the series is the X4-Q, this is an inbetween of the X4 and the X4–1U. Currently it brings in $11 per day in profit and costs around $7,500 per miner. The ROI of this is longer at 18 months but still can produce good profits.

Ethereum Hashrate Migration

Moving on from ASIC’s, I want to talk about the hashrate migration in terms of how much Ethereum Classic can support and how much I think will hit the network. Now the current network hashrate on Ethereum Classic is 50 Th/s and the main Ethereum network has around 900 TH/s to be diluted into other coins. Ethereum Classic will be the main choice for many miners but it can’t sustain a certain amount of hashrate at the price it is at now. With a price of $30 per coin it means that the network can only sustain around 120 TH/s for GPU miners, but for ASIC miners it would be around 350 TH/s. With Ethereum having 900 TH/s we will probably see around 500 TH/s hit this network, just because i’ve been seeing many miners saying they will be switching to that. However no other mining coins will be able to handle even 20 TH/s more onto their networks. This would ruin the profitability for pretty much all other coins but Ethereum Classic. So it does look bleak for the short term future but I think after the first month it will start to settle down but still will be unprofitable. There is one way to support this massive hashrate migration, this is if the price of Ethereum Classic goes up. I think it needs to go up to ten fold before it even becomes remotely profitable on 500 TH/s on the network. This means the price would have to sit around $300 per coin. Lastly Ethereum Classic team could add MEV onto the network, this would allow for more profits out of mining Ethereum Classic.

Conclusion

Overall the switch from ethereum to ethereum classic is probably the best move but you need to put a plan in place to either get the most efficient GPU’s or think about getting into ASIC mining.