Ethereum Miners Opposes the Proposal to Reduce Block Reward by 75%
A new proposal for an EIP for Ethereum has been sharply criticized by miners, who suspect that the people behind the project are more interested in the future of Bitcoin (BTC) than in Ethereum (ETH).
The EIP aims to bring Ethereum’s inflation rate closer to Bitcoin (BTC) and to preserve the purchasing power of the ETH. EIP 2878 proposes reducing the block reward by 75%, from 2 ETH per block to 0.5 ETH per block.
The Ethereum Magicians Forum, where developers and miners alike can discuss their validity, the proposal was shared on August 11 on the Ethereum Magicians forum. Some users responded to the proposal by saying that ASICs are highly profitable compared to GPUs.
Miners, particularly those using GPUs, immediately called for an EIP, saying that the decline in block rewards was more than double the percentage of previous reductions in the network and that an attack on 51% was possible.
Although it came to the conclusion that Ethereum is trying to copy Bitcoin’s inflation rate because it’s the old network that has tried to do other things, “he said. Reducing block rewards and altering the GPUs would remove the rest of the GPUs from the system, giving ASICs full control of the network.
Most, however, thought a 1.5-1% decline was more reasonable. The majority opposed the principle of reducing block rewards because Ethereum has no built-in mechanism – halved, like Bitcoin – and therefore relies on EIPs to control inflation for the proposed reduction in bonus. Not to mention that the proposal makes miners feel needed, he said.
“Did they let the miners make way too much money in 2017 and 2018? You bet. Does starving them now make that ok? I don’t really think so.”
Another user added that the proposal was terrible timing, as Tether’s transition to OMG would drastically reduce the fees paid to miners.
While Ethereum developer Hudson Jameson suggested that the proposal be examined in the light of EIP 1559, it is relatively new, has little Community support, and is still relatively new. One Reddit user said that while the miners had earned a lot in 2017, this would not affect current earnings.
