It has become known that the value of the production video cards used for the miner is cryptating in China. ) This occurred shortly after the upgrade of the Ethereum network called Merger , in which the block was transferred from the Proof-of-Work algorithm to the Proof-Stake algorithm.
Several months ago, video cards, including those popular among NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti, were sometimes sold at least three times more than the retail price recommended by the manufacturer. It is noted that the last two months in China have seen a decline in the retail value of the video cards against the expectation that the Ethereum algorithm will be updated. After the upgrades, they have been replaced by validators, who, if very simplified, receive fees for the storage of currents rather than for the calculation as they used to be. Thus, in the new algorithm, the determining factor was not the computing power, but the amount of assets deposited.
According to the source, three months ago, the GeForce RTX 3080 video card at the Buy Now electronics store in Shanghai was worth about $1,140, while it is now available for around $700.
A representative of another electronics store in the same region of Shanghai reported that the price of GeForce RTX 3080 cards from manufacturers such as MSI and Colorful had fallen by about $140-280 relative to the price of two months ago. He said that it had happened after the cryptoval community had seriously talked about the upcoming upgrade of the Ethereum network. He also added that last year he had clients buying GeForce RTX 3080 for $1,300 and now they had to sell them for less than half that price.
On the JD.com and Taobao sites, many vendors have reduced the cost of GeForce RTX 3080 cards by several hundred renminbi relative to their price two or three months ago.
Retailers note that video card prices have reached , and the cost of some models has even fallen below the recommended retail prices.