HIVE Blockchain Explores Alternate Mining Opportunities Ahead of the Ethereum Merge

The Canadian mining firm produced 290.4 BTC and 3,010  (CRYPTO: ETH) in the last month, equating to approximately 9.4 Bitcoin and 97 Ethereum per day. At current prices, the figures translate to roughly $350,000 worth of production per day. 

"We continue to strive for operational excellence, ensuring that as we scale our hashrate as a company, we also optimize our uptime to ensure ideal Bitcoin and Ethereum output figures," said the President & COO of HIVE, Aydin Kilic.

Hive is also exploring options to diversify mining options as it has begun analyzing alternatives for its high-end GPU stash that was reserved for Ethereum. 

Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) means miners don't require to deploy GPUs with high processing power. The current consensus mechanism, i.e. proof-of-work (PoW), rewards miners with the most computing power. 

Therefore, Hive's high-power mining rigs will no longer be appropriate to support the PoS version of ETH.

Hive's Sweden-based Boden facility is among the largest mining sites in the world for Ethereum, with a power rate of $0.03 U.S. dollars per Kilowatt hour. The company believes it "is well positioned to navigate the market ahead."

Hive intends to continue holding its Bitcoin stash even though mining difficulty has recently gone up. It noted that miners with the most efficient systems and lowest electricity costs would prevail in a competitive landscape. The firm is one of the few companies that hasn't sold its mined (CRYPTO: BTC) during the ongoing crypto winter. 

Not only Hive but also several other mining firms are on the hunt for greener pastures in the wake of the Merge. An exodus of such from Ethereum to other PoW blockchains might increase the prevailing mining difficulty industrywide, thus affecting profitability. 

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