Ethereum overtakes Bitcoin in 2022 due to September merger

The crypto community is preparing for a grandiose event – ​​the refusal of the leading altcoin towork of miners in favor of validators.After the developers approved September as the closest move date, Ethereum jumped 65% in 30 days and surpassed Bitcoin in growth rates this year.

Image Source: Cryptocurrency ExchangeStormGain

In the derivatives market, open interest in Ethereum has overtaken Bitcoin for the first time in history, and derivatives traders are betting on the altcoin rising to at least $2,200.

Image Source:glassnode.com

The transition from PoW (proof of work) to PoS (proof of stake) is called a merger, as all key network parameters will be moved into the parallel developing test chain.

Image Source:ethereum.org

To stimulate the merging process in the PoW branchthe difficulty bomb will be activated, which will lead to its natural death. The difficulty bomb exponentially increases the difficulty of mining, making it less and less profitable.

Miners will have to migrate to other networks in order togenerating income, for example, in Ethereum Classic. However, not everyone agrees with this role. So, a major Chinese miner, Chandler Guo, proposed to “clone” Ethereum by creating the ETHPOW token. Some crypto exchanges have already supported this idea by issuing relevant futures. In particular, Poloniex, MEXC and BitMEX did this, and Binance expressed possible support for the fork.

ETHPOW only has a chance if itwill pick up an impressive proportion of miners. At the moment, many doubt the advisability of another fork, since the parent branch on PoW already exists - this is Ethereum Classic. In addition, the leading stablecoin operators, Tether and Circle, have officially announced support for PoS-only branches.

Image Source:www.circle.com

Despite the imminent abandonment of mining, miners do notrush to leave Ethereum. Thanks to the latest price increase, mining profitability has risen from 1.4 cents in July to the current 2.8 cents per MH/s. So, the latest E9 asic from Bitmain generates about $65 of daily income and reaches self-sufficiency in 6-8 months.

As a “soft” deadline for the transition to PoS, the developers designated September 19th. If everything goes smoothly, Ethereum will continue to strengthen against Bitcoin.

 

Analytical group StormGain

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