Ethereum: 3 Days Left until Byzantium and 3GB GPUs Lifespan

According to CryptoMines, five days are left until Ethereum’s forks and Byzantium is released. Byzantium is one of the biggest planned updates for Ethereum and it will be one of the latest big ones before the coin switches to PoS. Byzantium aims to prepare the coin for PoS and as a result we will get some important changes, such as lowering transaction times and increase in block mining speed.

The fork is expected to happen October 17^th. That day, after the difficulty bomb adjustments we, miners, should experience a 23% increase in rewards. At first, Byzantium update was scheduled earlier, but due to several factors it will eventually land on block 4,370,000.

Now, those of you who are mining Ethereum using 3GB GPUs might want to know that your GPUs will not become obsolete right after the update. In fact, Ethereum devs speculate that 3GB GPUs will remain fully functional for ETH mining for another 13.5months – until ~12-13th November 2018.

The math is simple. Starting from October 17^th, the estimated block speed will be 14.1s. The DAG file will exceed the 3GB mark on block 6,900,000, but due to 3GB GPUs requiring about 80Mb overhead, they will become obsolete on block 6,750,000 (2.92GB). This means that 3GB GPU owners will have about 388 days left after the Byzantium update.

Short

Ethereum: 3 Days Left until Byzantium release, the fork that will raise mining rewards by 23%. From a call with Ethereum devs we now know that the release of Byzantium was delayed for about two weeks, but the update is a thing and it will eventually take place soon. Make sure your mining rigs are up and ready.

Also, devs reveal for how long 3GB GPUs will be able to mine ETH. There are many speculations on when the DAG file will reach the 3GB mark. Eventually, now we know the real numbers that take into account the Byzantium update and the subsequent changes in block mining speed.