The Ethereum [ETH] network is all set to transition into Proof-of-Stake [PoS] from Proof-of-Work [PoW] through ‘The Merge.’ With this shift scheduled to take place in September, the entire community was sharing their take on the whole update. While some condemned the project, a few others rooted for a delay. The miners involved, however, were adamant about forking the network. Prominent miner Chandler Guo was confident about a hard fork following ‘The Merge.’ Justin Sun and his crypto exchange, Poloniex, seconded this thought. Meanwhile, Chainlink’s idea of a hard fork did not sit well.
In a recent post about Ethereum’s PoS transition, the Chainlink network penned down an array of things. This included the fact that the protocol would remain operational during and post the Merge. Further elaborating on any potential hard fork, the network said,
“Users should be aware that forked versions of the Ethereum blockchain, including PoW forks, will not be supported by the Chainlink protocol. This is aligned with both the Ethereum Foundation’s and broader Ethereum community’s decision, achieved via social consensus, to upgrade the Ethereum blockchain to PoS consensus.”
While EthereumPoW, also known as ETHW, has been making the rounds, Chainlink seems to have steered away from supporting it.
In addition, the network urged developers and dApp teams to put a hold on smart contract operations if they were skeptical about their migration to the Merge. Chainlink even implied that this would aid in avoiding “unforeseen incidents and help protect end users.” The network further highlighted the possibility that dApps might function unexpectedly if they operated on the forked version of Ethereum.
Justin Sun continues to embrace Ethereum’s yet to be hard forked assets
Last week, Poloniex emerged as the first exchange to list ETHS and ETHW. Following the hard fork, Sun announced he would donate 1 million ETH to the ETHW community and developers. Over the weekend, Poloniex added trading pairs for the above-mentioned coins with zero trading fees.
It should be noted that the Ethereum forked coins went live about 18 hours before their planned release.
Additionally, it should be noted that ETHW did not come as a surprise to many. The notion of Ethereum miners forking the network was a given and has been widely discussed over the years. While some remain unsure about the fork, Sun seems highly inclined towards the same.