Videocards have dropped in price after Ethereum switched to Proof-of-Stake model

Chinese miner retailers continue to sell video cards that became worthless after Ethereum switched from the Proof-of-Work algorithm to Proof-of-Stake.

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The Merge upgrade, which was completed in mid-September, reduced Ethereum's network power consumption by nearly 100%. That's the equivalent of shutting off the entire Finnish global power grid. But because of the new algorithm, miners are forced to sell video cards, because now graphics accelerators are simply not needed to mine the cryptocurrency. Of course, the seller has problems as well.

The first to feel the effects of the new model were Chinese retailers and ordinary users who want to make money on accelerators. Back in the spring they could sell top-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 graphics cards at a markup of up to 200%. But since mid-summer, in anticipation of an upgrade and Ethereum's transition to the Proof-of-Stake model, accelerator prices began to drop.

Three months ago, the GeForce RTX 3080 in Shanghai's Buy Now was around $1140. Now you can buy the video card there for $700, that is, its price has dropped by almost 40%. But the drop in price of more than $400 is an isolated case.

In other stores, MSI and Colorful's GeForce RTX 3080 has dropped $140 to $280 in two months. However, one retailer added that customers were buying such accelerators for $1300 in 2021, and now some retailers have to sell the cards cheaper than the retail price.

In online stores, video cards aren't getting as drastically cheaper. For example, the same GeForce RTX 3080 has dropped in price by several hundred yuan since August 2022 (¥100 = ~$14) on JD and Taobao marketplaces.

Source: scmp