SparkPool, the second largest Ethereum mining pool, will close its doors by September 30. At this writing, PoolWatch.io says Hangzhou-based SparkPool is responsible for ~122.5 TH/s (roughly 18.5%) of all Ethereum mining.
Will this loss of computational power impact “gas fees” (the price miners charge to mine ETH)?
Right now, ETH is trading at $2,902.29, and the Ethereum Gas Tracker shows gas fees hovering around 61 Gwei (about $3.41). (Gas fees have been bouncing between 30-80 Gwei for the past week or so, and — in case you are wondering — 1 Gwei = 0.000000001 ETH, the smallest amount of ETH you can transact with.) Right now, the impact of the SparkPool announcement is unclear.
Importantly, Ethereum plans to move away from mining in 2022 as it rolls out Ethereum 2.0 and its new Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Today’s safety tip: as always, check the gas fees before you do an ETH transaction.
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