Ethereum miners seem to be smiling to the bank now. This feat is triggered by transaction costs on the Ethereum network recently reaching a new hourly record. Data retrieved from Glassnode, a crypto analytics firm, revealed that ETH miners on the network earned a staggering $1 million in just one hour.
Following UniswapProtocol’s announcement of the UNI token recently, Ethereum saw a massive surge in miner fees. Almost $1M USD in fees was spent in a single hour, thereby setting a new record high.
This prevailing macro is positive for Ether miners whose turnovers have been increased by higher fees and more transactions. In fact, Ethereum’s network hash rate has been growing consistently, having reached a near two-year high.
Meanwhile, the median Ethereum gas price has massively spiked as well, reaching levels as high as 700 Gwei.
Meanwhile, the median #Ethereum gas price has massively spiked as well – reaching levels as high as 700 Gwei!
Chart: https://t.co/XFxGsbPLdE pic.twitter.com/5aDfNqF1WS
— glassnode (@glassnode) September 17, 2020
What is Gas? On Ethereum, all transactions and smart contract executions require a small fee to be paid, called Gas. In technical terms, Gas refers to the unit of measurement on the amount of computational effort required to execute an operation or a smart contract. The more complex the execution operation is, the more gas is required to fulfill that operation. Gas fees are paid entirely in ETH.
However, the Ethereum network has been having constant issues with high transaction fees and congestion since the rise of DeFi tokens. Recently, the network increased the limit of maximum gas per block from 10,000,000 gases to 12,500,000 gases. However, it is not the only network whose fees have been rising.
Is mining Ethereum mining worth it? When it comes to most crypto assets, mining difficulty and costs related to it are only going upwards.
However, as ETH mining becomes more difficult based on more miners joining the process, it is expected that cost will move upward, as more computing power, software, and electricity are needed.
Nairametrics, however, believes that ETH’s value in recent months has gained exponentially and will most likely continue to do so, thus making mining potentially profitable in the long term.