• Vitalik Buterin says a few opponents are simply trying to make a “quick buck” with the Ethereum fork idea. 
• Chinese miner Chandler Guo and Tron founder Justin Sun are some of the proponents of the PoW hard fork. 

The potential Ethereum proof-of-work fork, which some are clamoring for, is unlikely to succeed, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. It is no news that the Ethereum network developers have been working towards The Merge. This will see to the transitioning of the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus model to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The upgrade will reduce the network’s energy use by up to 99 percent and lower transaction costs. 

However, some are proposing forking the Ethereum network when it undergoes The Merge. If the fork happens, this will create a version of the network that will remain on the Proof-of-Work model. The idea started gaining attention two weeks ago when influential Chinese crypto miner Chandler Guo said he would fork the Ethereum blockchain. He announced that the Ethereum PoW version, “ETH POW”, is coming soon. He added that “i fork ethereum once, i will fork it again!” Notably, Guo played a role in the 2016 fork that resulted in Ethereum and Ethereum Classic (ETC). The Chinese miner is glued to his latest idea and has consistently talked about the PoW version of Ethereum. 

i fork ethereum once，i will fork it again！ https://t.co/3DdlZ3zMz9

— Chandler Guo (@ChandlerGuo) July 27, 2022

Meanwhile, Guo has been getting responses from Twitter users, who are referring to the Ethereum Classic as the existing PoW version of Ethereum. The last few weeks have seen ETC receive some PoW hash rate. While ETC is at about 26.62 terahash per second (TH/s), ETH is at 954.73 TH/s. Also, ETH has popped 52 percent against the dollar over the past month, while ETC has increased by 1345 against the USD in the same period. 

Buterin seems unbothered about Ethereum Fork

While speaking during a Q&A session at ETHSeoul last week, Buterin talked about the impact of a Proof-of-Work fork. He said he does not see an organic aspect to the fork proposal. The Canadian programmer added that the plan “is just a couple of outsiders that basically have exchanges, and mostly just want to make a quick buck.” He noted that he is “not expecting it to have substantial, long-term adoption” and mentioned that he hopes that whatever happens does not make people lose money. 

The idea of the Ethereum fork is settling among prominent names in the industry, such as Tron founder Justin Sun. He said in a tweet that the crypto project would donate some forked #ETHW to the #ETHW community and developers to build the Ethereum ecosystem if the hard fork succeeds. Also, the crypto exchange Poloniex, backed by Justin Sun, has declared support for the Ethereum fork. The exchange said it would list both ETH and the forked version. 

Trading is now live for the Ethereum (ETH) potential hard fork tokens! @justinsuntron

ETHW(ETH1)/ETH: https://t.co/QeY2Yk1a9E

ETHS(ETH2)/ETH: https://t.co/yS1piE47u4 pic.twitter.com/8Ko44ykWqd

— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) August 7, 2022

As some are proposing the Ethereum hard fork, others are looking forward to the highly anticipated merge. In the interim, Ethereum investment products are seeing strong inflows. Crypto News Flash reported in May that institutional clients are growing interest in the network as it approaches the upgrade, scheduled for the 19th of September.