Crypto community split over Ethereum hard fork
Following Chandler Guo’s public promise to fork Ethereum (ETH), the call for a hard fork has grown significantly, allowing stakeholders to pitch their tents on different sides.
Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun and his crypto exchange Poloniex were among the first supporters of the idea.
OKX, Huobi hints at listing Ethereum forks
Jay Hao, CEO of OKX exchange, has hinted that the exchange may list “the newly forked coins if there is sufficient demand”.
On @OKXwe actively monitor and will support #Ethereum Merge.
Potential Ethereum hard forks may appear when the network’s upgrade takes effect.
We will evaluate and list the newly forked coins if there is sufficient demand.
— jay_star.okx ⚛️ OKX CEO (@star_okx) August 8, 2022
However, he added that OKX “will support the Ethereum merger.”
Huobi too confirmed that it would support Ethereum-forked assets on its platform as long as they meet the exchange’s security requirements.
But it added that it does not encourage arbitrary branching and pre-mining that could affect the industry’s development.
Other crypto exchanges like Street interchange and MEX have also revealed that they would support ETH hard forks.
BitMEX says ETHPoW will generate interest
BitMEX wrote that there are many technical challenges that a forked version of Ethereum would face. It continued that if the positive sentiment around the forked coins persists, leading centralized exchanges may list them.
ETHPoW can generate a lot of excitement and we predict that ETH vs ETHPoW will be a popular trading pair after the split, at least until another interesting dynamic comes along.
Meanwhile, BitMEX will allow users to have exposure to ETHPoW through a linear futures contract margined in Tether that will go live on August 9.
Chainlink, Digital Currency Group will not support hard forks
Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert said his the firm does not intend to support any Ethereum hard fork.
Fwiw, our full support is behind ETH PoS, in addition to ETC, and have no intention of supporting any ETH PoW fork. ETH miners should move to ETC to maximize their earnings in the long term. as simple as that
— Barry Silbert (@BarrySilbert) 6 August 2022
According to Silbert, ETH miners should move to Ethereum Classic (ETC) to maximize their earnings in the long term.
Chainlink (LINK) so it would not support any network that is a forked version of Ethereum. The protocol and its services will only remain operational on Ethereum during and after the merger.
“Users should be aware that forked versions of the Ethereum blockchain, including PoW forks, will not be supported by the Chainlink protocol. This is in line with both the Ethereum Foundation and broader Ethereum community decision.”
Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that those who want Ethereum to remain a PoW network are those who want to make quick money. Buterin so:
“Should a fork gain traction, I’m sure there are going to be issues…if they want to make a fork, it’s up to them to mitigate those issues.”
