Ever since a prominent Chinese Ethereum miner announced his intention to resist the upcoming Ethereum merge and create a new, parallel network and cryptocurrency, the idea has begun to gain some traction. But how far can it really go?
The miner, Chandler Guo, launched a campaign last week to draw opposition to the merge—the network’s imminent and much-anticipated transition to Ethereum 2.0 and proof of stake. Guo plans to hard fork the Ethereum network once it transitions to proof of stake next month, and in doing so create a spinoff, proof-of-work version of the network, called ETHW.
Experts on the subject seem unconvinced that any Ethereum network proponents are prepared to turn that provocative concept into a reality. But the idea has now gained a notable ally in Tron founder and CEO Justin Sun, who said yesterday that his crypto exchange Poloniex will support the fork. Sun's move isn’t sitting well with some Ethereum supporters and developers, who must now begrudgingly contend with the possible fork and its potential consequences.
“This public support for ETHW is harmful to the Ethereum ecosystem,” Daniel Hwang, head of protocols at Stakefish, a leading staking pool, told Decrypt. “It is damaging to further fracture and complicate the ecosystem. I find it alarming that some of us […] are ignoring the very clear weight large infrastructure providers can have,” he said, while emphasizing that he spoke only for himself and not on behalf of his company. “The ecosystem listens to these leaders.”