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Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently spoke about his opinions on the recent Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) fork, a subject that has lately come up in a number of discussions within the cryptocurrency industry. At the recent ETH-Seoul conference, Buterin said that he thought the forked token concept was being introduced by a “few of outsiders” who “primarily simply want to make a fast cash.”
Commentary from Vitalik Buterin on the Proposed Ethereum PoW Fork
Many members of the cryptocurrency community have been talking about a potential ETH PoW fork (ETHW) that is distinct from the current Ethereum Classic blockchain.
According to a report from Bitcoin.com News, prominent Chinese crypto miner Chandler Guo started the talk about ETHW by stating that he was involved in the development of Ethereum Classic (ETC). The concept then gained additional support after the launch of the website ethereumpow.org and the decision by a few exchanges to list the fork.
According to stats from coinmarketcap.com, each IOU token for ETHW is currently valued $138.69, and on Poloniex, ETHW is trading hands for 142.27 USDD versus Tron’s USDD stablecoin. This past weekend at the ETH-Seoul conference, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin answered questions about ETHW. Buterin discounted the likelihood that a branch of this nature would get widespread support. Buterin emphasized that “I’m not anticipating it to have a significant, long-term adoption.”
The co-founder and developer of Ethereum also discussed Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Buterin praised the ETC community. In Buterin’s opinion, Ethereum Classic already has a better community and a better product for users that generally hold pro-proof-of-work beliefs and tastes. Buterin said that people behind the ETHW idea are only a “few of foreigners that basically have exchanges, and primarily just want to make a fast money.” Howevern added:
I hope that whatever happens, doesn’t lead to people losing money.
Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, talks about ETHW; Buterin doesn’t believe that the fork would harm the Ethereum ecosystem
Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), already made comments regarding the ETHW concept on Twitter before Buterin’s analysis. “[For what it’s worth], our complete support is behind [Ethereum proof-of-stake], in addition to [Ethereum Classic], and have zero plan to back any [Ethereum proof-of-work] fork,” Silbert tweeted to the Galois Capital account on Twitter. To increase their long-term profits, [Ethereum] miners should switch to [Ethereum Classic]. Just like that.
In response to some of Chandler Guo’s discussions, Silbert has also made additional comments on Twitter. Guo tweets @ Silbert, “Why only [Ethereum Classic]?” In response, a DCG official said that supporting the Ethereum Classic chain is “the smart play for [ethereum] miners” and added that Antpool is spearheading the effort.
Silbert reacted to someone telling him to cease talking to Guo by saying, “I like and respect Chandler. Simply disagree with him on this approach.
At the ETH-Seoul conference this past weekend, Buterin revealed that he does not anticipate that the potential of a second fork will discourage interest in Ethereum (ETH). Buterin said, “I don’t expect Ethereum to really be materially affected by another fork. As usual, Buterin conducts himself on Twitter, tweeting on Monday about stealth addresses for ERC721 (non-fungible tokens) NFTs. The co-founder of Ethereum described it as “a low-tech solution to offer a large level of anonymity to the NFT ecosystem.”
