“We will be donating part of the split ETHW to the ETHW community and developers to help grow the ethereum ecosystem if the hard fork of ethereum is successful.” It’s worth noting that 1 million ETH is equivalent to little under 1% of the total amount currently in circulation.
The year 2018 saw the introduction of TRON by Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency that some have likened to an Ethereum clone (TRON was accused of copying the Ethereum whitepaper). Even yet, Sun is said to have invested a considerable percentage of his wealth in the Ethereum network. In the past, he has been seen transferring millions of dollars into and out of Ethereum DeFi, and he possesses a large number of very valuable Ethereum NFTs.
After the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced on its blog that it would accept tokens created in the event of an Ethereum hardfork, Sun felt compelled to make his own response. A snippet read:
“When it comes to Ethereum’s upgrade and possible hard fork, Poloniex will be 100 percent behind it. Upon update, the Merge, if effective, might generate two concurrent blockchains. When the update process gets completed, all holders of Ethereum (ETH) on Poloniex will get the forked crypto assets in a 1:1 ratio.”
To further prepare for the Merge, Poloniex has announced that it would initially display two possible hardfork tokens, ETHS (representing Proof-of-Stake ETH) and ETHW (representing Proof-of-Work ETH), and allow users to swap these for ETH at a 1:1 ratio and vice versa. It was also said that several Proof-of-Work forks would be supported, but if multiple Proof-of-Stake chains were to be created, ETHS would be exchanged for ETH.
We currently have more than 1 million #ETH. If #Ethereum hard fork succeeds, we will donate some forked #ETHW to #ETHW community and developers to build #ethereum ecosystem. https://t.co/ee4kGSuVoK
— H.E. Justin Sun🌞🇬🇩 (@justinsuntron) August 4, 2022
There has been much speculation in the crypto world about a possible Proof-of-Work Ethereum split in the next weeks, as the network’s momentous “Merge” event approaches. Proof-of-Stake and validators will be used in Ethereum when the Merge is complete, rendering Proof-of-Work miners useless. This is why a lot of people in the community want to split off from the present version of Ethereum. Leading the charge for the “ETHPOW” hardfork is Chandler Gou, an early ETH investor and famous Chinese miner who was instrumental in the 2016 fork that created Ethereum Classic.
Recent speculations indicate that a fork is becoming more probable, while there is still some discussion on both sides about whether or not it will occur. It is possible that ETH holders would get a compensation in the form of an airdrop if a Proof-of-Work fork is successful. This would be similar to the way early ETH holders got ETC in 2016, and how BTC holders were rewarded BCH when Bitcoin Cash was introduced in 2017.
An indication of the market’s rising optimism that the Merge will shortly deliver may be seen in the number of talks revolving around ETHPOW. Final testing of the upgrade’s testnet will begin in the next days, and the Merge will take place in the middle of September.