By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
The PoW mainnet will launch within the first 24 hours after The Merge.
The team behind Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW), has revealed that it will be launching its hardfork shortly after the Ethereum Merge is completed on September 15. The announcement was shared via a Tuesday tweet, revealing details of the post-merge plans.
According to the post, the PoW mainnet will launch within the first 24 hours after The Merge, with a countdown timer expected to go live an hour before launch. Part of the announcement also reads:
“Everything including final code, binaries, config files, nodes info, RPC, explorer, etc. will be made public when the time’s up.”
Although the mainnet will start at an additional 2,048 blocks to The Merge block height, the initial mining difficulty is set to be at a minimum of a hash rate of 15 TH/s.
What Necessitated the Ethereum PoW Hardfork?
The Ethereum merge is expected to shift the second-largest blockchain to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. However, the transition will also ensure that there is absolutely no need for energy-intensive mining activities. The reality of this has led miners – looking to maintain their revenue stream – to propose the hardfork. Others, however, have resorted to mining other blockchains.
Before this announcement, several exchanges have indicated their interest in the forked Ethereum PoW. Some others such as Bitfinex, Poloniex, and Coinbase have even listed it. However, with the new launch plans just revealed, it is almost certain that several others will come forward as well.
Transition Taking a Toll on Miners
Without a doubt, the transition of the Ethereum network to proof-of-stake has been the hottest topic in the crypto space. And more importantly, it has also had a positive impact on Ethereum. For instance, over 70,000 new addresses were added to the network between August and September.
But despite the evident performance on various metrics, miners and mining on the network have been negatively impacted. In fact, alternative networks are beginning to see a massive influx of miners likely looking to maintain their income.
A good example is Ravencoin, whose mining has skyrocketed since The Merge update began drawing near. The RVN token is up 71.4% in the last 7 days.