Nicehash Hacked and its Miners are Missing in Action! Ethereum Losing Profitability

Ethereum Mining - Why are you so Low?

Ethereum may be number two in terms of market cap, but it sure isn’t in terms of mining!

I mean I understand that NiceHash got hacked and is still down (I hope it hasn't impacted you too greatly), but I figured those miners would shift to other pools and would likely mine more established coins since they would probably have these wallets established.

It hasn't panned out that way based on net hash rates and difficulty.

Since I started GPU mining earlier this year with two Gtx 1070’s and three Gtx 1060’s, I have never seen Ethereum drop off the top ten list in terms of 24 hour profitability. Well, that time is at an end. Here is the top 9 as of now.

Ethereum, nowhere to be seen.

The current profitability for some of the possible 'dud' coins (I'll put Monacoin in this category) suggests that perhaps most of its miners were from Nicehash, and that these miners haven’t been replaced for whatever reason. Before Monacoin’s first pump I actually had a close look at it and could not identify anything that would justify a bright future, except that it targets the Asian market with a cute cat coin face. Apparently that is enough.

And just for show, here is the list from 10 to 19.

There is Ethereum, right at number 19, and with (only?) about a 10% reduction in mining difficulty since Nicehash went down, suggesting most Ethereum miners are actually mining it for the Ethereum, rather than the Bitcoin payments you would get through Nicehash.

What Should you Mine?

Obviously I would recommend any of the smaller coins that are immediately more profitable, and exchange them for Bitcoin if you don't believe in them. After all, that is essentially what Nicehash does.

I am particularly surprised at Vertcoin's currently profitability (see above, 900% on Ethereum?). This is the result of Nicehash being down, and flow on implications for Vertcoin. However, the extent of the change and how this manifests itself in terms of profitability is massive. I wouldn't think that such a large portion of its mining group would be from Nicehash. I also don't think Vertcoin is a 'dud' like Monacoin, so that makes it even more surprising to me that so many of its miners came from Nicehash.

I hope for everyone's sake the Nicehash breach did not result in as many coins being lost as is currently reported, and everyone receives their Bitcoin payouts.

Personally, right now I'm mining Zencash, because I actually believe in this coin and I won't be exchanging it for Bitcoin.