New data on Ethereum shows that the network had experienced a massive decline in revenue generation for miners. This slump can be partially attributed to the depreciation of the ETH price, which has come down a long way from the all-time of $1,500 in 2018 to roughly $150 in 2019.

Ethereum mining revenue diminished by roughly three-quarters between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2019. Statistics show that miners generated $3.7 billion in 2018 while the following year saw just $935 million. Despite this downturn, the most recent indicators point towards healthy network growth which has also been reflected in the price of ETH.

The total number of Ethereum addresses has been experiencing rapid growth as well, hitting all-time highs in 2020 and is showing no signs of slowing down. Daily average difficulty and the average hashrate of the network have also remained at healthy levels, though not quite as strong as the market’s peak at the beginning of 2018.

Ethereum Network Difficulty Recently Decreased

Ethereum developers recently decided to delay a ‘difficulty bomb,’ which would have increased the hashing difficulty. The purpose of this was to encourage nodes to move to the Proof-of-Stake upgrade which is expected in 2021.

Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP 2387), also known as the ‘Muir Glacier’ or ‘Ice Age’ upgrade, has delayed this difficulty bomb as the developers undergo a complicated transition to Ethereum 2.0.

A Big Year Ahead

Ethereum has a big year ahead of it, with multiple upgrades being released before the launch of the much anticipated Ethereum 2.0, which will bring such monumental changes as sharding and Proof-of-Stake.

The upgrade has already been delayed, with much of the changes expected in 2019 and 2020. Investors are hopeful that the transition will be smooth and subject to no more delays, as the upgrade would greatly improve Ethereum’s scaling capabilities, as well as bringing staking to the network to attract more investors and adoption.