According to a recent announcement by the Poloniex exchange, it would start supporting the ETHW next week.
The long-awaited Ethereum upgrade, the Merge, is drawing near, and would soon transition Ethereum from the Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm to the Proof of Stake (PoS) model. The PoW model allows miners to create new ETH using huge computing power to solve complex mathematical puzzles, but is eco-unfriendly. The PoS would, on the other hand, create new ETH through pledging or staking a large quantity of preexisting ETH. This would make it practically impossible to mine the asset.
For this reason, Chandler Guo, a prominent Chinese crypto miner, has strongly resisted the Ethereum Merge and disclosed his decision to fork the Ethereum blockchain. This will create a spin-off PoW version of the network. This decision has been welcomed by a section of the Ethereum community. A Twitter account belonging to EthereumPoW claims to have received 83 donations, free servers, AWS credits, as well as voluntary engineers and designers.
Poloniex Exchange to Support the Ethereum PoW Forked Token
According to a recent announcement by the Poloniex exchange, it would support the ETHW beginning next week.
“The Ethereum Merge is expected to be in September 2022. Poloniex was the world’s first exchange to list #ETH and now the first one to support the potential forking of ETH with a listing of two potential forked ETH tokens: #ETHS & #ETHW,” Poloniex Exchange announced.
Poloniex also announced that it will allow users to trade ETH for ETHW as well as ETHW for ETH at a one-to-one ratio. In a blog post, the exchange further disclosed that it will list ETHS – a token that is expected to exist if the Merge is successful. The blog post further states that it will convert all the ETHS into an upgraded, post-merge ETH. Also, if the Ethereum network fork fails, the exchange will delist ETHW and all associated markets.
Justin Sun, the Tron Network founder and major investor of Poloniex, has thrown his weight behind the fork, as he believes that the PoW was very important in the growth of Ethereum. He also claimed to have 1 million ETH. For this reason, he would donate some ETHW to the community and developers to continue to carry on with the Ethereum ecosystem if the fork works.
“We’ve witnessed the consensus mechanism of [proof of work] as a key factor driving the expansion of [the] Ethereum ecosystem, and are willing to continue to support the development of the community,” said Sun.
His Tron network has an undeniable similarity with Ethereum, and at one point, the Tron whitepaper was subjected to critical scrutiny for plagiarism.
Huobi exchange has also been reported to have shown interest in supporting the ETHW.
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