'No One Is Profitable': GPU Mining Faces Dark Days After Ethereum Merge
Want to mine cryptocurrency with your PC graphics card? Don’t bother. Following the Ethereum Merge, GPU-based mining for all cryptocurrencies is now largely unprofitable, at least for now.
On Thursday morning, Ethereum—one of the most lucrative mineable cryptocurrencies—finally phased out GPU-based mining, which will help cut down on its energy consumption. But the transition is bad news for crypto-miners who focus on Ethereum as their main profit source.
“(The Merge) killed it all off,” says one miner named Philip Robb. “All my stuff is idling now.”
Initially, many miners were hoping to switch to alternative cryptocurrencies, such as Ergo and Ravencoin, which can also be mined with PC graphics cards. But both currencies have so little value—mere dollars and pennies—that mining them is unprofitable compared to Ethereum, which is currently valued at around $1,500.
We tried mining Ravencoin using an Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card today, but quickly realized it was a loss-making venture. According to the mining software, we’d only make between $0.13 to $0.26 a day, and that's before paying California’s high electricity costs, which would likely result in a net loss.
A miner named Blake Teeter tells PCMag he's facing the same situation, despite owning dozens of GPUs with far more mining muscle. “With my power cost, most coins appear unprofitable at this time,” he says.
Indeed, WhatToMine.com(Opens in a new window) shows that GPU-based mining for any cryptocurrency is currently unprofitable if you do so from California. It only becomes a money-making venture with a few coins if you live in a state with low electricity costs. But even then, profitability is in the pennies, well under the several dollars you could make mining
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