Ethereum Classic Jumps Nearly 12% as Hash Rate Hits All-Time High

Ethereum Classic (ETC),  a hard fork of Ethereum executed following the 2016 DAO hack, hit an all-time high record hash rate of 48.82 terra hashes per second (TH/s) yesterday, per data from 2miners.

ETC, the native token of the Ethereum Classic network, has since jumped nearly 12% over the past 24 hours and trades at around $35.6, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The coin has surged over 60% in the past 90 days from $21.40 to $35.6 today.

Hashrate is the total computational power used to mine and process transactions on a blockchain network. 

Over the past month, Ethereum Classic’s hashrate has increased by 62.04%, from 30.08 TH/s on August 6 to its all-time high on Sunday.

Stepping back even further, and the figures are even more dramatic. The hashrate growth over the past 12 months is a whopping 105%. 

The higher the metric, the safer the blockchain, as high hash rates require immensely high computational power to compromise the network via a 51% attack. 

In August 2020, for example, Ethereum Classic suffered its third 51% attack when the total hash rate was 2.90 TH/s. Since then, the hashrate has increased by 1,606%, securing the network more than ever. 

Apart from hashrate, ETC’s mining difficulty reached an all-time high of 626.02T yesterday per data from 2miners. 

The mining difficulty shows the number of times a miner calculates the hash to mine new coins. Increased mining difficulty is associated with a growing miner network.

Merge event fueling Ethereum Classic

The primary reason behind the increasing miner activity of Ethereum Classic can likely be attributed to the upcoming Ethereum merge later this month.

The merge event will transition the network from a proof-of-workproof-of-work (PoW) consensus to a proof-of-workproof-of-work (PoS) consensus to reduce its carbon footprint and improve its efficiency.

The event isn’t without its downsides, though.

The merge will make current mining hardware deployed by crypto mining companies obsolete, forcing them to look for alternatives like Ethereum Classic, which continues to operate under traditional mining mechanisms.

In July, the crypto mining platform Antpool added a $10 million backing for Ethereum Classic to back its PoW consensus.