On March 1, after a significant delay , the long-awaited update of the ethereum called Constantinople was launched , which, in addition to improving the mining efficiency of Ethereum , also reduced the reward for blocks from 3 to 2 ethers (ETH).
Activation of "Bombs complexity"
Ethereum currently relies on a network in which many miners are involved in verifying transactions on the ETH blockchain. However, in future, ethereum is preparing for a transition from the current mining model called Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, which implies the abandonment of miner devices.
To keep miners from refusing to support the network, a “bomb of complexity” is included in the code of the etirium, which gradually complicates the Proof-of-Work (PoW) process and stimulates the transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) .
It is obvious that the ethereum miners are not interested in the Proof-of-Stake. Nevertheless, investors patiently expect a long transition to this algorithm, since it should lead to a decrease in the rate of inflation of ethereum and to an increase in its price.
On the graph below, you can see how hardfork Constantinople influenced the complexity of mining , the time of extraction of blocks and hash rate:
Reducing the average complexity of mining in the Ethereum network
The graph of the average complexity of mining etririum shows that because of hard forks, which occurred on March 1, the complexity of mining has decreased significantly.
It also indicates that a decrease in rewards for a mined block is associated with the complexity of mining in ethereum.
Reducing the average mining time of the block in the Ethereum network
After the hard fork of Constantinople, the mining time for the block of ethirium was reduced by 30% – from 19 seconds to 13 seconds.
Thus, the decrease in mining remuneration and block mining time suggests that the hard forks of Constantinople did not have a significant impact on the miners, because now the miners, although receiving less payment, can mine more blocks over a period of time.
The average hash rate on the Ethereum network has not changed. Why?
The graph above shows that after the hardfork Constantinople hash network network hash rate has not changed, which was a surprise. Since after hardforka, the complexity and mining time decreased, it was expected that the hash rate would increase dramatically, as a decrease in complexity implies an increase in productivity.
One of the reasons for the constant hash rate could be the increase in the price of ethereum after the hard forks of Constantinople, and the miners could hope for bullish forecasts for the price of the broadcast, despite the decline in remuneration for the extracted block.
Publication date 11.03.2019
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