The Ethereum miners are working at a machine called Casper. They decided to create a new machine because they felt threatened by Bitmain, the Chinese chip maker. Bitmain is producing in this moment a hardware that delivers a big power. The machines from Bitmain could control the Ethereum transaction confirmation.

ETHEREUM MINERS ARE FACING THEIR BIGGEST BATTLE

Bitmain is working hard for introducing more powerful computers on the market. Ethereum developers are somehow worried about the new wave of machines from Bitmain. That’s why the Ethereum developers are working full time on the countermeasures against the other manufacturers.

Those who are working with Bitmain equipment will be able to dominate or centralize the transactions with Ethereum. According to Bloomberg:

The range of participants could be about to shrink, as Bitmain and others move in with a new type of computing hardware that could give them disproportionate power when it comes to confirming transactions.

Ethereum developers try to spread new solutions, such as Casper and plasma. Casper promises to bring a new vision about the mining process. Casper also tries to reduce the risk of centralization.

With the implementation of Casper, Ethereum will have a new consensus protocol. Consesnsus will use the proof-of-stake (PoS) instead of the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm.

According to Bloomberg:

During a call last month, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that the risk will go away once the community deploys Casper — software that will get rid of miners altogether and confirm transactions in a different way, which would expand the number of people involved in the process.

THE END OF MINING AS WE KNOW IT IS COMING FAST

Most miners in the Ethereum network use GPUs (graphics processing units). Ethereum implemented a proof-of-work algorithm that would prevent ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) from mining Ethereum.

Bitmain expects to start shipping the first batch of Antminer E3 in mid-July. The retail price is $800 USD. You can pay in cryptocurrency. However, for this batch, Bitmain accepts only BCH (Bitcoin Cash) and US dollars.

New technologies and schemes are bound to stream continuously into the cryptocurrency space. In this regard, Bloomberg quoted Dave Balter, a partner at Flipside Crypto, who said:

These things tend to create a lot of noise and news, but we tend to stay focused on the fundamentals. Ethereum is a great project; it will continue to be one, regardless of how fast it gets mined.