Because I’m a custom PC builder, I track GPU prices, especially the 3090. I’m also fascinated with cryptocurrency and have been following the many articles discussing the direct correlation between the 3090 increased costs, the value of Ether, and Ether gas rates. From my previous articles, both 3090s and Ether prices have risen drastically. Ether has doubled in value, and the cost of the 3090s has increased. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know a correlation between the two. Because the price of Ether is going up, mining cards are in high demand, and the 3090s sit at the top for mining Ether. But what about the gas fees? Is there a correlation there? Also, what about Ethereum 2.0, where mining is obsolete because of the proof of stake mining (PoS) instead of the proof of work (PoW) model?
Here is where data science and R software language poke its curious little head in the matter to provide some insights. I collected monthly data from the past year on the cost of the 3090 graphics card, the price of Ether, Ethereum transactions, and Ethereum gas fees. The cost of 3090 for each month is pretty straightforward because there’s more stability in the card price from month to month. Still, it is more complicated when it comes to Ethereum because crypto prices can fluctuate drastically within a day time. However, I took point monthly estimates to provide data when it comes to Ethereum, keeping in mind that the price of Ether within that month fluctuated drastically.
Even with the price of Ether fluctuating drastically, the data shows a constant rise in the price of Ether and a steady transaction rate with an average of 1.3 million. I used the correlation function to build a correlation table for the data set. Let’s make the Price of Ether our dependent variable. We see a positive relationship between the price of Ether and the other explanatory variables, with the most vital relationship rising with the cost of the 3090 and the number of transactions.
When we try to explain the increased cost of 3090s, we see a negative correlation between the graphics card and gas fees. This means that gas fees are not driving the high cost of the graphics cards, but the price of Ether is.
Conclusion
Until the PoS model is implemented, we can continue to see an increased cost of 3090 graphics cards. Especially when we consider the global chip shortage, 3090s will continue to be in high demand. Also, the positive correlation between Ethereum transactions and the price of Ether means that the more people utilizing the network, the more valuable Ether becomes and the more work 3090s have to perform to execute those transactions. All in all, the demand for Ether isn’t going away anytime soon.
