Ethereum has completed its swap over to a "proof-of-stake" network rather than a "proof-of-work" one. That’s great news for the environment, for the Ethereum network, and for every game that’s looking to get a new graphics card.
Why is it great news for new GPU seekers? Because with Ethereum moving to a "proof-of-stake" network, thousands of crypto miners from all over the world are suddenly out of business. That means all those poor graphics cards that were ceaselessly toiling away for the chance at nabbing a bit of ether for their cruel owners are very likely to find their way to the secondary market where they’ll push down graphics card prices.
Before today, Ethereum was a "proof-of-work" network like Bitcoin. It was extremely energy-intensive as the entire network was maintained by thousands of crypto miners all devoting their powerful computers to recording and verifying every transaction. It’s the big reason why cryptocurrencies are considered to be terrible for the environment as some networks have the same energy consumption as a small country.
"Proof-of-stake," on the other hand, requires far fewer resources and uses way less power. As Engadget explains, the Ethereum network will allow certain users to stake an amount of ether (a minimum of 32 ether, or around $50,000) to be the arbiters of transactions for the network. If they do anything fishy, they lose their stake, but in return for their loyal service, they earn around 5.2 percent interest on their stake every year.
But if you don't care about all the crypto financial stuff, the TLDR is that "proof-of-stake" requires a fraction of the computing power than what Ethereum was doing before, so all those crypto mining rigs are worthless. That means miners are going to want to divest themselves of their hardware, and that means cheap video cards.
GPUs were already coming down to their pre-pandemic prices thanks to the crypto crash, but with the world’s largest cryptocurrency moving to "proof-of-stake," there’s going to be a flood of video cards on the secondary market. PC subreddits are celebrating the move, and if you’re in the market for a new graphics card, you should be too.