How to mine Ethereum after The Merge? What are the best alternative coins to mine?

Post-Merge Ethereum Mining Realities

1. Ethereum officially ceased proof-of-work mining on September 15, 2022, following The Merge upgrade. This transition shifted the network entirely to proof-of-stake consensus.

2. GPU-based mining rigs previously used for ETH are no longer capable of validating blocks or earning ETH block rewards. The Ethash algorithm was decommissioned and replaced by the Beacon Chain’s consensus mechanism.

3. Attempting to mine Ethereum post-Merge results in orphaned blocks with zero network recognition. No pool accepts these submissions, and no exchange credits such work.

4. Legacy mining software like Ethminer, Claymore, or PhoenixMiner will fail to connect to mainnet endpoints or produce valid shares. Their developers have discontinued support and updates.

5. Some miners repurposed hardware toward other Ethash-based coins temporarily, but most of those chains experienced sharp hash rate drops, increased centralization risks, and diminished profitability within months.

Top Alternative Coins for GPU Miners

1. Ravencoin (RVN) remains one of the few actively maintained coins using KawPoW — a memory-hard, ASIC-resistant algorithm derived from Ethash but designed to sustain GPU viability.

2. Ergo (ERG) employs Autolykos v2, requiring over 4GB VRAM and emphasizing decentralization through dynamic difficulty adjustments and low barrier-to-entry requirements.

3. Firo (FIRO) uses Lelantus Spark, a privacy-focused PoW algorithm optimized for GPUs while maintaining resistance against ASIC dominance and cloud mining farms.

4. Vertcoin (VTC) enforces One-Click Miner compatibility and regularly hard-forks to invalidate ASIC firmware, preserving its original mission of egalitarian mining access.

5. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) continues supporting Equihash-BTG, though its market liquidity and exchange listings have significantly contracted since 2021.

Hardware Considerations and Profitability Shifts

1. High-end NVIDIA RTX 4090 and AMD RX 7900 XTX cards deliver peak hashrates on KawPoW and Autolykos, but power draw exceeds 350W under sustained load, pressuring electricity cost margins.

2. Older generation cards like GTX 1070 and RX 580 remain viable for Ravencoin mining due to KawPoW’s memory bandwidth sensitivity rather than raw compute throughput.

3. Mining profitability calculators now exclude Ethereum entirely; platforms such as WhatToMine and CryptoCompare redirect users to RVN, ERG, and FIRO metrics only.

4. Dual mining configurations disappeared after The Merge because no widely adopted dual-algorithm framework supports both Ethash derivatives and non-Ethereum-native protocols simultaneously.

5. Cooling infrastructure requirements intensified as miners stacked more GPUs per rig to compensate for lower per-coin yields, increasing rack density and thermal management complexity.

Pool and Wallet Infrastructure Adjustments

1. Major pools including 2Miners, Flexpool, and MiningPoolHub deprecated all Ethereum-related endpoints and redirected API documentation toward Ravencoin and Ergo integration guides.

2. Wallet support fragmented: Exodus and Trust Wallet dropped RVN and ERG native staking features, while dedicated wallets like Ravencoin Core and Ergo AppWallet gained enhanced UTXO tracking and offline signing capabilities.

3. Payout thresholds rose across most alternative coin pools, with minimum RVN payouts now set at 10,000 RVN and ERG thresholds averaging 0.5 ERG — reflecting reduced daily coin issuance rates.

4. Stratum V2 adoption accelerated among Ergo pools to mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks and improve share validation latency, especially for high-latency residential connections.

5. Transaction fee structures diverged sharply: Ravencoin maintains fixed 0.001 RVN fees, whereas Ergo implements dynamic fees based on block congestion and script complexity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I still use my old Ethereum mining rig to earn passive income?A: Yes, but only if redirected toward compatible algorithms like KawPoW or Autolykos. Idle rigs generate zero value without reconfiguration and pool registration.

Q: Is there any chance Ethereum will reintroduce proof-of-work?A: No. The Ethereum Foundation has permanently removed all PoW code paths from client implementations. Client teams treat PoW as legacy architecture with no maintenance roadmap.

Q: Do alternative coins offer the same level of security as pre-Merge Ethereum?A: No. Hash rate distribution across RVN, ERG, and FIRO is orders of magnitude smaller than Ethereum’s historical peak, making them more vulnerable to 51% attacks and chain reorganizations.

Q: Are mining rewards taxable in jurisdictions where crypto is regulated?A: Yes. Most tax authorities classify mined coins as ordinary income at fair market value on receipt date, regardless of whether the coin is ETH, RVN, or ERG.