Since the end of 2020, the price of Ethereum increased, causing crypto farmers to rush to buy ‘buffalo’, making VGA scarce. Many people expect Ethereum to drop in price for VGA to follow.
In just over 10 days, the price of Ethereum has nearly halved. From a peak of $4,323 set on May 12, this cryptocurrency has plummeted along with Bitcoin’s fluctuations. By the morning of May 23, the price of Ethereum was only 2,300 USD.
Before this fluctuation, many users wait for the price of VGA to decrease, to buy a graphics card to install in their computer at a cheaper price. However, this is unlikely to happen. “Even when the coin price has plummeted, people who install buffalo plows are still profitable for many reasons. VGA is still sold out in the market, so there is no reason to reduce the price too deeply,” Nguyen Bao, manager at a major computer store in Ho Chi Minh City shared with Zing . Coin price falls, “plowers” are still profitable “Plowing” coins is actually the process of using machines to perform calculations to validate transactions on the blockchain network. This concept holds true for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and coins that use Proof of Work (PoW) consensus. Currently, the “buffalo” installations with computer graphics cards mainly plow Ethereum. 
Although the price of Ethereum has plummeted, the market for buying and selling “buffaloes” is still very active. Photo: Chi Kien. When a transaction is validated and a block is completed, the fastest finisher will be rewarded with a pre-specified amount of cryptocurrency. From the performance of the computer and the difficulty of the network, the plow system owner can estimate how many coins he will collect per day. Since the number of people participating in Ethereum mining fluctuates constantly, the difficulty of mining also changes. If mining during a period of low prices, but many people quit mining, the difficulty decreases, the “farmers” plow coins still earn more Ethereum per day. As a result, they are still profitable. “Participants in plowing coins are only interested in profit. Although the price has decreased, but every day they dig more, they are still profitable. Therefore, looking at the price of Ethereum falling and saying that VGA is going to be cheap is not baseless,” said Mr. Bao. Compared to the beginning of January, the price of Ethereum has increased by about 3 times. As a result, market participants “plowing” the coin were profitable. When using applications on the Ethereum blockchain, users pay a small fee called a gas fee. This fee is also charged in Ethereum. In addition to the reward for completing a block, the farmer who plows the coin is also entitled to a portion of the gas fee. 
According to Etherscan, the price of gas has increased over the past few days due to many participants trading on the Ethereum network. Screenshots. During the volatility of the market, the number of investors pouring money into trading also increased. According to statistics from Etherscan, gas fees increased sharply on May 19, which is also the day the entire cryptocurrency market plummeted. In other words, once participating in the mining network, mining rig owners have many opportunities to earn money. The profit from the rig is not entirely dependent on the price of the cryptocurrency. Don’t wait for VGA prices to drop in the near future VGA price in the market still depends on supply – demand factors. The demand of miners has increased sharply, while ordinary users still need to buy cards to play games and work, making the balance of “demand” always heavy. Meanwhile, the source with VGA is not guaranteed. The global chip crisis lasted for the past year, making it difficult for manufacturers to ensure output. Domestic distributors, even if they wanted to, could not import large quantities. “Every month we can only import a few hundred VGAs. This quantity is much lower compared to other components. It is very difficult to meet the needs of dealers,” said The Vuong, a product manager at a distributor based in Hanoi. 
Many “buffalo plow” owners have broken even, so there is no need to sell off the rig when the price drops. They profit from the reduced difficulty, even willing to shut down if necessary to wait for the price to rise. Photo: King Kai. According to information from some dealers, the price of VGA in Vietnam market is still cheaper than surrounding countries such as Thailand and China. Therefore, the amount of VGA imported has been less and sometimes has to be shared with other markets. On groups that share the experience of installing buffalo plowing machines, the market for mining rigs is still very active, the number of daily new buy and sell posts is still very much. Occasionally there are questions and answers about the situation when the price of Ethereum goes down, but many rig owners are still very optimistic. “Actually, many people buy the system and then give it to someone else to manage, and collect money every month. It’s very easy to do. Those who joined early have now broken even, just less profit. Those who have participated for a long time understand the market too well, they can’t easily sell their ‘fishing rods’,” said Mr. Bao. In June, a number of component manufacturers will launch a VGA line with poorer performance of “ploughing coins”, called lite hash rate. Due to inefficiency when plowing coins, this VGA line may be less attractive to plowmen and suitable for gamers. However, not excluding the possibility of price fluctuations, Ethereum’s difficulty makes mining rig owners also “empty” low performance when needed.
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