The Canadian Hive Blockchain Technologies is looking for ways to optimize its Ethereum mining capabilities as the ambitious Merge approaches. It wants to enhance its 6.5 terahashes of Ethereum mining capacity as the transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) gets ready to unfold. Hive is analyzing mining other coins with its graphics processing units (GPUs). It is carrying out the beta testing this week.
Josh Olszewicz, the head of research at Valkyrie Investments, said miners are likely looking to shift to Ethereum Classic (ETC), ETHPoW, or other proof-of-work chains. He outlined that EtHash application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) miners are shifting to ETC because making fewer profits is better than making none at all. Olszewicz believes GPU miners will likely move to the ETHPoW fork when that occurs. He said GPU miners have increased flexibility on what they can mine compared to ASIC miners.
Hive has around 38,000 Nvidia GPU cards, including the A4000, A5000, A6000, and A40 models. These account for about 2.8 terahashes of the company’s Ethereum hash rate. The cards can be used for cloud computing and AI applications, and rendering for engineering applications, in addition to scientific modeling of fluid dynamics. Hive outlined that a portion of the A40 GPU cards is being applied to cloud computing as part of a pilot program at one of its data centers.
The Vancouver-based company mined 821 Bitcoin and 7,675 Ether during 2022’s second quarter. Hive’s overall production of digital currencies increased by 7% quarter-over-quarter, as it produced 4% more Bitcoin and 20% more Ether. Furthermore, it sold Ether to fund the expansion of its Bitcoin mining program with new generation ASICs. But Hive’s Ether position sank from 25,000 ETH to 5,100 ETH as of August 31.
