Five days ago, the influential Chinese crypto miner, Chandler Guo, explained that a proof-of-work (PoW) version of Ethereum is “coming soon” as the community prepares for the network’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) next month. As usual, the idea of a forked token gets people excited and some individuals get upset, and even though the token hasn’t been created yet, there’s now a website called ethereumpow.org summarizing the coin’s goals.
The Merge Upgrade Could Produce an Ethereum PoW Fork, Poloniex to List 2 ‘Potential Forked’ Ethereum Token Markets
If Ethereum (ETH) transitions into a full PoS blockchain next month, there’s a very good chance a PoW version will fork away from the current version. The Merge has a pencilled-in date that could take place on the week of September 19, or 44 days from now. Guo is a well known crypto miner and he played a specific role in the 2016 creation of the blockchain network Ethereum Classic (ETC). On August 1, Bitcoin.com News reported on Guo tweeting about a PoW version of Ethereum “coming soon” and how he said, “ETH PoW is DAO.”
Now there’s a new website touting the not-yet-born ethereum PoW version called ethereumpow.org, and the web portal claims a white paper is coming soon. The website’s “community [and] contributors” section says: “It takes a village to raise our Ethereumpow. Numbers of communities, exchanges, miners, and individuals have worked together to make ETHW possible.” Domain statistics from Whois records indicate that the web portal was registered on July 31, 2022. The ETHW website owner’s name and identity has been “redacted for privacy,” the internet record listing site says.
BREAKING: Poloniex will be the FIRST exchange to support EthereumPoW (ETHW). @Poloniex @justinsuntron
1/n pic.twitter.com/h6M9Pxv5lZ— ETHPoW (@EthereumPoW) August 3, 2022
The cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, backed by Tron’s Justin Sun, has announced that the trading platform will list ETHW. After Poloniex tweeted about listing ETHW, Sun retweeted the announcement to his 3.3 million Twitter followers. “The Ethereum Merge is expected to be in September 2022,” the exchange wrote. “Poloniex was the world’s first exchange to list ETH and now the first one to support potential forking of ETH with the listing of two potential forked ETH tokens: ETHS & ETHW.”
Poloniex Led the Charge During ETC’s Creation
Poloniex was also the first exchange to list ethereum classic (ETC). In a now-deleted tweet, one of the members of the Slock.it development team, Stephan Tual, remarked about Poloniex “leading the charge.” At the time, the Poloniex ‘troll-box’ was going wild and the exchange saw roughly $11.89 million in ETC trade volume on July 24, 2016. While it has experienced a number of 51% attack hiccups, ETC still exists today as it’s currently the 19th largest crypto asset in terms of market valuation. In an interview with Bloomberg, Chandler Guo talked about the advantages of ETHW in comparison to ETC.
Born at ETH block height 1,920,001, Ethereum Classic has reaped benefits from the pencilled-in Merge date, and during the last two weeks it has gained 51.2%, and ETC jumped 148.5% higher over the last 30 days. ETC has also seen a slight hashrate increase but during the last week, ETC’s hashrate rise has tapered off. Months before the most recent hashrate spike, ETC maintainers wrote that the community welcomed Ethash miners to the Ethereum Classic ecosystem.
fwiw, our full support is behind ETH PoS, in addition to ETC, and have zero intention to support any ETH PoW fork. ETH miners should move to ETC to maximize their revenue long term. simple as that
— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) August 6, 2022
Bitmex Research: ‘It Is Likely That the Chain Is Extended Past the Merge Point, However, Whether or Not This Chain Has Any Economic Significance Is an Open Question’
Furthermore, on August 1, Bitmex Research published a blog post called “ETHPoW vs ETH2,” which examines a hypothetical debate over the two potential Ethereum networks. The blog post, written by Bitmex Research, concludes “by arguing that although the ETHPoW chain may have many technical challenges and its long term viability is in question, its existence may provide an exciting opportunity for traders and speculators in the short to medium term.”
In addition to Poloniex, Huobi Global plans to list any potential forks that are created when The Merge takes place. Huobi will distribute forked assets if they meet specific requirements, the company said on Friday. When Poloniex releases the “Potential forked” token markets next week, it will be interesting to see what traders and speculators value the ETHW token. It’s quite possible the futures markets could overshadow ETC’s recent gains.
What do you think about the possibility of an ETHW chain that splits away from Ethereum when the chain transitions to PoS? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.