Ethereum, new delay for the transition to proof of stake: what consequences on the price of video cards?

A new delay is expected for “The Merge”, the long-awaited transition of Ethereum to the proof-of-stake mechanism: previously scheduled for the month of June, it will take place “a few months later”, at least according to the information shared by the developer Beiko Team.

“It will not be June, but probably in the following months. We do not have a certain date yet, but we are definitely in the final chapter of the proof-of-work on Ethereum.” The statement there Beiko sparked a certain uproar and the developer decided to investigate the matter further sharing more details on GitHub.

The developer explains that a specific date for the transition to proof-of-stake will not be set until there is confidence that software implementations “have been thoroughly tested and bug free”. These latter stages include public testnets and the launch of the so-called “shadow fork” which will allow developers to test various PoS implementations over the network.

We remind you that with the transition to the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, the computing power that is currently used to support the Proof of Work will no longer be required, leading to the disappearance of GPU mining.

However, the new delay in switching to PoS will have the effect of keep Ethereum GPU mining profitable for a longer period of time than previously thoughtwith the consequence of affecting the downward trend in the prices of video cards that we have witnessed in the last period.

Indeed, it has been since the beginning of the year that the prices of video cards follow a downward curve, as a consequence of various factors: if on the one hand there was certainly the lack of demand from miners, who did not want to run the risk of buying new video cards and not recovering the investment with the arrival of The Merge, it is also good not to overlook a possible drop in demand in more general terms for a non-essential good, in the face of the widespread economic difficulties triggered by surge in inflation.

However, it seems unlikely that Ethereum’s delay in the transition to PoS could trigger a reversal in the trend in the price of video cards: currently there are two determining variables: on the one hand, the timing with which the transition to the proof-of-stake, on the other hand the price of Ethereum. If the actual delay of The Merge will be only “a few months” and the price of Ethereum will continue to hold at current levels without jolts to the upside, in the current scenario it is more likely to assume only a slowdown in the normalization of the situation.