Question:

• How have miners reacted to the fast-approaching merge?
• Have they stopped mining in recent weeks? Show evidence of miners either stopping work or continuing to mine.

Solution:

Based on this The transition occurred at block 15537393 on September 15 at 1:42:42 a.m. EST.

To answer this question, I used ethereum.core.fact_blocks table. The approach I followed in this dashboard was to first have an overview of the blocks and the number of transactions in each block in two periods. one of them before block number 15537393 as before the Merge and another one after this block number as after the Merge.

Then I compare the daily average value of metrics in two periods (before and after the Merge).

At the end we’ll go to the main question of this dashboard, that is, what is the reaction of miners to the Merge? They stop work or continue to mine.

What was The Merge?

The Merge was the joining of the original execution layer of Ethereum (the Mainnet that has existed since genesis) with its new proof-of-stake consensus layer, the Beacon Chain. It eliminated the need for energy-intensive mining and instead enabled the the network to be secured using staked ETH. It was a truly exciting step in realizing the Ethereum vision—more scalability, security, and sustainability.

Initially, the Beacon Chain shipped separately from Mainnet. Ethereum Mainnet - with all it's accounts, balances, smart contracts, and blockchain state - continued to be secured by proof-of-work, even while the Beacon Chain ran in parallel using proof-of-stake. The Merge was when these two systems finally came together, and proof-of-work was permanently replaced by proof-of-stake.

Imagine Ethereum is a spaceship that launched before it was quite ready for an interstellar voyage. With the Beacon Chain, the community built a new engine and a hardened hull. After significant testing, it became time to hot-swap the new engine for the old one mid-flight. This merged the new, more efficient engine into the existing ship enabling it to put in some serious lightyears and take on the universe.

This chart shows the number of transactions since the beginning of 2022 per day. I separate blocks mined before and after the Merge.

As you can see, about 300,000 transactions per day have been added after the merge.

This chart shows number of block mined by miners since the beginning of 2022 per day. I separate blocks mined before and after the Merge.

As you can see, the number of blocks mined increased after the merge.

before the merge daily number of blocks was around 6K but after this event reached over 7K per day.

Also, we can see, a drop in the chart from the 19th to the end of June.

This chart shows the average number of transactions per block since the beginning of 2022 per day. I separate blocks mined before and after the Merge.

As you can see, the average number of transactions per block doesn’t have any notable change.

This chart shows the number of unique miners since the beginning of 2022 per day. I separate blocks mined before and after the Merge.

This chart is one of the important charts in this dashboard. Because it gives a clear answer to our question at first glance. The question was how miners reacted to the merge event. As you can see, the number of unique miners has increased by about 10x after the merge. So it can be said that there have been many receptions.

But the next question is whether all this increase is from new miners? What was the reaction of the old miners? These questions will be answered a little later.

Here, I compare the average value of some metrics before and after the merge. For example number of blocks mined by miners, the number of unique miners, the total number of transactions per day, and the number of transactions per block.

We can see an increase in all metrics after the merge. But in some much more. For example, the number of unique miners has increased a lot after the merge, rising from 48 per day before the merge to 500 per day after.

Now it's time to see how many miners after the merge are new and how many were miners before the merge.

As you can see, there are 153 unique miners before the merge since the beginning of 2022 and 1083 unique miners after the merge. Out of these 1083 people, 1082 of them have not been miners since the beginning of 2022, and only one of them has a history of mining before the merge. It can be said that less than 1% of miners continued their activities after the merge and 99% stopped mining.

So what is the reason for this welcome and entry of new miners into the ecosystem? As you know merge is The transition from PoW to PoS. PoS ensures that anyone interested in staking will be able to play miner role so immediately as long as they meet the minimum required tokens and have these tokens “Staked.” It reduces the cost of setting up the mining infrastructure including the associated risk of mining operations — fluctuating energy costs, shifting regulatory regulations.

After the merge, miners were no longer needed to secure the network, and so rig operators have to move their machines to other PoW blockchains.

After the merge, the only requirement is to hold and stake a certain amount of PoS digital tokens or coins in order to participate in the validation process instead of running crypto mining machines.

Conclusions:

• The number of blocks mined increased after the merge.
• The average number of transactions per block doesn’t have any notable change.
• About 300,000 transactions per day have been added after the merge.
• The number of unique miners has increased by about 10x after the merge.
• less than 1% of miners continued their activities after the merge and 99% stopped mining.
• After the merge, miners no longer needed to secure the network so they prefer to move to other PoW blockchains. Also who hold and stake a certain amount of PoS digital tokens could participate in the validation process.