Key Takeaways
- Justin Sun has said he will support an Ethereum hardfork by donating ETH to the ecosystem following a successful launch.
- It comes after crypto some community members have discussed forking Ethereum ahead of “the Merge” to preserve a Proof-of-Work ecosystem.
- The Poloniex exchange has announced that it will support a hardfork by listing two potential hardfork tokens.
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It comes as some crypto community members weigh forking Ethereum to establish a new Proof-of-Work network.
Justin Sun Backs Ethereum Fork
One of crypto’s biggest whales has committed to supporting a Proof-of-Work Ethereum fork.
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
TRON founder Justin Sun weighed in on one of crypto’s biggest talking points of recent weeks Thursday, saying he would donate some forked ETH to the community to help a Proof-of-Work Ethereum ecosystem grow. “We currently have more than 1 million #ETH,” he tweeted, likely in reference to the TRON Reserve DAO. “If #Ethereum hard fork succeeds, we will donate some forked #ETHW to #ETHW community and developers to build #ethereum ecosystem.” 1 million ETH represents just under 1% of the total circulating supply.
Justin Sun launched TRON in 2018, which itself is sometimes described as a clone of Ethereum (TRON was accused of copying the Ethereum whitepaper). However, Sun is known to hold a significant portion of his net worth in the Ethereum ecosystem. He’s been tracked moving millions of dollars in and out of Ethereum DeFi in the past and holds many extremely valuable Ethereum NFTs.
Sun wrote his post after the Poloniex crypto exchange shared a blog post announcing that it would support any potential Ethereum hardfork tokens. An excerpt read:
“Poloniex will give full support to ETH’s upgrade and its potential hard fork. If successful, the Merge could create two parallel blockchains after the upgrade. All Ethereum (ETH) holders on Poloniex will receive the forked assets at a 1:1 ratio when the upgrade is completed.”
Poloniex added that it would initially list two potential hardfork tokens called ETHS (representing Proof-of-Stake ETH) and ETHW (representing Proof-of-Work ETH) and let customers exchange them for ETH at a 1:1 ratio and vice versa ahead of the Merge. It added that it would support several Proof-of-Work forks, but if more than one Proof-of-Stake chain launched, ETHS would be converted to ETH.
Hardfork Plans Surface Ahead of the Merge
A potential Proof-of-Work Ethereum fork has been a hot topic in the crypto community in recent weeks as the network’s landmark “Merge” event draws nearer. When Ethereum completes the Merge, it will adopt Proof-of-Stake and rely on validators to achieve consensus, which will essentially make Proof-of-Work miners obsolete. That’s why many community members are keen to fork the current iteration of Ethereum. One of the biggest proponents of the hardfork plan, dubbed “ETHPOW,” is Chandler Gou, a prominent Chinese miner and early ETH investor who helped with the Ethereum Classic fork back in 2016.
While there’s debate on either side over whether a fork will go ahead, the recent rumors suggest it’s looking increasingly likely. If a Proof-of-Work fork does succeed, that could mean ETH holders receive a payout in the form of an airdrop, similar to how early ETH holders received ETC in 2016, and BTC holders received BCH when Bitcoin Cash launched in 2017.
The increasing discussions surrounding ETHPOW also highlight the market’s growing confidence that the Merge will soon ship. The final testnet for the update is set to happen in the next few days, while the Merge itself is scheduled for mid-September.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.