Today, the team behind ETHPoW wrote an open letter arguing that its proof-of-work Ethereum fork was “inevitable.”
The Ethereum merge
ETHPoW is a potential Ethereum fork led by Chandler Guo to separate from the main Ethereum network. Guo asserts that the fork will let miners continue mining operations after the merging when Ethereum moves to a proof-of-stake consensus. However, this would create two blockchains, each with its version of the protocols and currencies that function on the chain.
ETHPoW has published an open letter to the Ethereum Classic development team, ETC Cooperative. This was a response to ETC Cooperative’s previous letter to Chandler Guo, which discussed why the ETHPoW fork will fail and why miners should just switch to Ethereum Classic.
In the announcement, it was asserted that Ethereum Classic would not be able to handle all current Ethereum miners. Therefore, numerous PoW forks are required.
An inevitable ETH fork?
ETHPoW Claims The Miner-Led Ethereum Fork Is Inevitable. Image: CoinCulture
The little pool of ETC cannot contain the vast pool of ETH computing power. This is a difficult fact. This hard split is unavoidable in light of such hard facts, the ETHPoW team said.
Additionally, the project gave information on its preparations. The team reported that it had deleted the “difficulty bomb” functionality from its version of the Ethereum source code, among several other modifications.
The difficulty bomb is a technique created by Ethereum’s core developers to deter miners from interfering with the merging by making it more difficult to mine Ethereum blocks. By eliminating this technique, ETHPoW hopes to make it easier for miners to generate new blocks when the fork occurs.
In addition, the ETHPoW team gave information about more developments. Developers will be able to test the fork code on an ETHPoW testnet before it is released. The team also claimed to have enhanced security against replay attacks, a form of network hack that may occur during blockchain splits.
According to the message, the ETHPoW would execute the split in September, maybe in conjunction with the merge.