Vitalik Buterin Unfazed by Chinese Ethereum Miner Concerns

Vitalik Buterin has been exercising some of his Chinese language skills on local social media platforms. It seems that miners are growing anxious over the approaching Ethereum EIP-1559 upgrade that could threaten their burgeoning revenue streams.

According to Chinese industry portal Wu Blockchain, Buterin is unfazed about the threat some miners have made over downing tools or a potential 51% attack. He reportedly stated that “we will all move to PoS [proof-of-stake] as soon as possible,” in response to questions about miner actions.

Translating the comments, the outlet stated;

“Vitalik said that the greater significance of EIP-1559 is that almost every exchange can be confirmed within 1-2 blocks. At present, the congestion of Ethereum is very serious, and the fees earned by miners have repeatedly hit record highs.”

Miner Discontent Mounting

Ethereum miners have been making record revenues as gas prices continue to soar to new all-time highs. Today marks another peak with the average transaction fee now hovering around $40 according to BitInfoCharts.

Earlier this month, BeInCrypto reported that Ethereum mining revenue hit its highest ever level with one day, notching up $3.74 million in a single hour.

With this under threat, miners could take action such as forking the chain after EIP-1559 is implemented. This would be similar to what happened with Ethereum Classic, the original version of the blockchain before The DAO hack.  

The EIP will change the way the current bidding system works for transactions and allow them to be dynamically generated. This should theoretically reduce the overall fees for the average user. It will also burn these fees which have to be paid in ETH, having a positive effect on long-term issuance and supply.

Those burnt fees are good news for Ethereum holders as the supply is reduced, but not for the miners that would have otherwise received them as payment for the “work.”

Ethereum EIP-1559 Drawing Closer

Ethereum’s future is proof-of-stake anyway, so miners should have come to terms with that inevitability by now. On the way there, however, EIP -1559 is likely to be launched with the London upgrade in July according to developers.

In a recent update on the situation, lead developer Tim Beiko said that large state testing is “99% done.” A developer call scheduled for March 5 will confirm whether the highly anticipated gas-saving proposals will be included in the upgrade.

The post Vitalik Buterin Unfazed by Chinese Ethereum Miner Concerns appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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