Try Quests to earn cryptoFlash Bounty: Miners Moving?
An exploration of Ethereum miners in the weeks leading up to the Ethereum merge.
Introduction
Ethereum Merge updated successfully on ==September 15 at Block 15,537,394==. This means the end of miners' work to mine ETH
According to Coingape, the crypto community witnessed the most anticipated and complex update in crypto history. Ethereum mainnet (executive layer) finally merged with Beacon chain (consensus layer) on September 15 at block height 15,537,394. This means the transition of the Ethereum network from PoW to PoS, which reduces the energy consumption of the Ethereum network by approximately 99.95%.
The last POW Block
The last PoW block was created by F2Pool and had only one transaction and one internal transaction contract.
This group has paid a fee of 30.2 Ether (about $50,000) for their only transaction to be included in this block. This amount is equivalent to the gas ceiling of each block (30 million gas), which means that no other transaction can be included in the same block.
What is the purpose of this dashboard?
The purpose of creating this dashboard is to show, by providing statistical information, how the Ethereum merger has affected Ethereum mining by Ethereum miners, and whether miners have stopped or continued mining Ethereum in the weeks leading up to the implementation of the Ethereum merge update.
Methodology
In order to be able to provide evidence for the continuation or stop of Ethereum miners' work in recent weeks, we will divide this dashboard into 4 time periods and examine each specific time period in terms of the collective behavior of miners and the behavior of each miner.
These 4 time periods are :
> * 1 week before the merge
> * 2 weeks before the merge
> * 3 weeks before the merge
> * 1 month before the merger.
To show the collective behavior of miners, we will show the average number of daily mined blocks and the average miners of these blocks daily in visualizations.
To show the behavior of each miner, we will show the blocks mined by each miner and the maximum and minimum and average blocks mined by each miner in these 4 time periods.
The ethereum.core.fact_blocks table from the core Ethereum database was used to create the visualizations of this dashboard.
Due to the completion of Ethereum Merge and the End of Ethereum mining by users, it seems that there is no need to update the visualizations, and it is possible to statistically record the obtained information in a fixed and written manner, and there is no need to refresh rate.
First Time period: 1 month before Merge
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Collective behavior of miners
The graphs below show the average number of daily miners and the average number of blocks mined by these miners in the mentioned time period.
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behavior of each miners
The chart below shows the amount of Ethereum blocks mined for each unique miner as maximum, minimum and average in the mentioned time period.
Data classification
The data related to The collective behavior of miners, ==1 month before== the merge, shows that the average number of mined blocks per day by miners was ==6,225.548 blocks==.
The data related to The collective behavior of miners ==1 month before== the merge, shows that the average number of daily miners was ==49.903 miners== and this number of unique miners were engaged in Ethereum mining on average daily.
The data related to the behavior of each miner in the ==1 month before== the merge, shows that the average number of blocks mined by each miner is ==124.978blocks== and the maximum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==136.13 blocks== and the minimum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==110.254 blocks==.
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behavior of each miners
The chart below shows the amount of Ethereum blocks mined for each unique miner as maximum, minimum and average in the mentioned time period.
Data classification
The data related to The collective behavior of miners, 3 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of mined blocks per day by miners was ==6,194.522 blocks==.
The data related to The collective behavior of miners 3 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of daily miners was ==49.652 miners== and this number of unique miners were engaged in Ethereum mining on average daily.
The data related to the behavior of each miner in the 3 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of blocks mined by each miner is ==125.021 blocks== and the maximum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==136.13 blocks== and the minimum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==110.254 blocks==.
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behavior of each miners
The chart below shows the amount of Ethereum blocks mined for each unique miner as maximum, minimum and average in the mentioned time period.
Data classification
The data related to The collective behavior of miners, 2 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of mined blocks per day by miners was ==6,154.071 blocks==.
The data related to The collective behavior of miners 2 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of daily miners was ==49.428 miners== and this number of unique miners were engaged in Ethereum mining on average daily.
The data related to the behavior of each miner in the 2 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of blocks mined by each miner is ==124.828 blocks== and the maximum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==136.13 blocks== and the minimum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==110.254 blocks==.
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behavior of each miners
The chart below shows the amount of Ethereum blocks mined for each unique miner as maximum, minimum and average in the mentioned time period.
Data classification
The data related to The collective behavior of miners, 2 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of mined blocks per day by miners was ==6088.000 blocks==.
The data related to The collective behavior of miners 2 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of daily miners was ==49.875 miners== and this number of unique miners were engaged in Ethereum mining on average daily.
The data related to the behavior of each miner in the 2 Weeks before the merge, shows that the average number of blocks mined by each miner is ==122.437 blocks== and the maximum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==135.173 blocks== and the minimum number of blocks mined by each miner is ==110.254 blocks==.
Conclusions From Classified Data
Let's consider the mining situation as normal in 1 month before the merge, and make this situation the basis of decrease or increase. If you agree, we are going to see how the statistics of miners and mined blocks have changed based on the data of 1 month before the merge, in percentage.
3 weeks before the merge:
==Mined Blocks per Day==: (6225.548/6194.522)-1*100= ==%0.5 DEC==
Daily Unique Miners==: (49.903/49.652)-1*100===0.5% DEC
Daily average Mined block per Unique Miner===(124.978/125.021)-1*100= ==%0.03 INC
Daily Maximum Mined block per Unique Miner===(136.13/136.13)-1*100= ==%0 Unchanged
Daily Minimum Mined block per Unique Miner===(110.254/110.254)-1*100= ==%0 Unchanged
2 weeks before the merge:
==Mined Blocks per Day==: (6225.548/6154.071)-1*100= ==%1.16 DEC==
Daily Unique Miners==: (49.903/49.428)-1*100===0.96% DEC
Daily average Mined block per Unique Miner===(124.978/124.828)-1*100= ==%0.12 DEC
Daily Maximum Mined block per Unique Miner===(136.13/136.13)-1*100= ==%0 Unchanged
Daily Minimum Mined block per Unique Miner===(110.254/110.254)-1*100= ==%0 Unchanged
1 week before the merge:
==Mined Blocks per Day==: (6225.548/6088.000)-1*100= ==%2.26 DEC==
Daily Unique Miners==: (49.903/49.875)-1*100===0.05 % DEC
Daily average Mined block per Unique Miner===(124.978/122.437)-1*100= ==%2.07 DEC
Daily Maximum Mined block per Unique Miner===(136.13/136.17)-1*100= ==%0.03 INC
Daily Minimum Mined block per Unique Miner===(110.254/110.254)-1*100= ==%0 Unchanged
Final Data Analysis
Let's look at the final data above and see if there has been a change in miners' behavior as the merge time approaches.
According to the above data, the biggest change in collective behavior is seen in the number of blocks mined daily by miners, and it has decreased to 2.26% in 1 week before the merger.
As can be seen, there is no significant change in the number of unique miners and the minimum number of mined blocks per miner. The minimum number of mined blocks by each miner is important because it shows the lowest number of mined blocks, and this happens even 1 week before the merge. It has not fallen and we do not see a decrease in this amount compared to 1 month before the merge.
The decrease changes that we observe in the behavior of collective and individual miners as we approach the time of Merge are very small, and it cannot be concluded from this amount of decrease that the miners have stopped working and stopped mining, but it seems that they are working. Continued to Mine Ethereum.
Conclusion
According to the statistical data of this dashboard, which is related to the collective and individual behavior of ethereum miners, it seems that the miners were mining until the last moment and continued their work.
It is not bad to take a look at Vitalik Buterin's tweet of thanks to Ethereum miners, in which Buterin is somehow proud of Ethereum miners.
It seems that most Ethereum miners participate in the Ethereum staking process and continue to operate as network nodes.
Some miners are also looking to mine cryptocurrencies that still work under the old mechanism of Ethereum. This means that miners can still use their GPUs to mine these types of cryptocurrencies. However, miners have to compete to be the first to mine these alternative cryptocurrencies because as the number of miners increases, the miner's reward will be lower.
Some miners may create a new fork of Ethereum and create a new proof-of-work network. With this fork, a new digital currency will be created. The success of this network will largely depend on the price of the cryptocurrency created. If the price of this cryptocurrency is low and its mining is not profitable for miners, the new network will probably fail.
