Experts shared their opinion on the prospects for forking the Ethereum network and talked about what awaits the token of the ETHW project in the near future
The Ethereum update, expected on September 15, will mean the cessation of mining of the largest altcoin by capitalization. Part of the community advocates a fork of the blockchain and supports a version that will retain the ability to mine cryptocurrency using the Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol.
The famous Chinese miner Chandler Guo initiated the development of such a blockchain option called EtherumPow (ETHW). The project team has already announced the launch of a mining-supporting chain in the near future after the update of the Ethereum main network.
Experts told what prospects await this version of Ethereum that supports mining, and what will happen to the new ETHW token.
Failure or development?
Any project has a chance of success, says BitRiver financial analyst . He recalled that the Ethereum Classic cryptocurrency (ETC) also appeared as a result of the hard fork of the Ethereum main network on July 20, 2016, and since then it has been mined and traded on the market.
According to the expert, now the ETC is an alternative token for miners who stay with the equipment (designed to mine cryptocurrencies using the Ethash algorithm, which is different from the bitcoin mining algorithm). According to various estimates, investments in GPU mining equipment total about $15 billion, analyst says. He is sure that Ethereum miners are ready to support any hard fork to try to mine Ethereum POW. If they are not satisfied with the yield, then they will switch to other coins, the analyst believes.
It is impossible to say in advance that ETHW/ETHPOW is doomed to failure, Nikita , a senior analyst at Bestchange, agreed with the previous expert. He also noted that, most likely, in terms of scale, we will see something similar to the story of the split between ETH and ETC.
According to the expert, the Ethereum fork will receive the support of a significant part of the developers, and some crypto exchanges, in an attempt to make money on the hype, add futures for a new potential project. Most likely, the fork is viable, but its future will depend on the further actions of the community, the analyst believes.
The fate of the project
If the community continues to develop the ecosystem with at least the same zeal as the followers of the ETC did, then the new token will have good prospects, analyst suggested. It is possible that inter-network gateways with the same Ethereum Classic and Polygon will appear, which will add liquidity to the project, with the proper approach, it will be possible to make ETHW an analogue of a PoW sidechain for the base Ethereum, the expert believes.
“The main factor of potential success lies in the ability or inability to continue to maintain the DeFi infrastructure and attract new projects to its blockchain. Centralized finance is the main fuel for the Ethereum community, without them the project will become an unnecessary second-rate altcoin,” analyst is sure.
On the other hand, the specialist suggested that in a negative scenario, the new branch could become a low-liquid useless token, supported only by a small group of enthusiasts. And its price will be pressured by large sales of Ethereum owners who had a non-zero balance before the split. Duplication of funds (distribution of ETHW tokens at the launch of the PoW network) is one of the main threats of the planned fork, according to the analyst.
Token prospects
The price prospects for the token are very mixed, says analyst . In his opinion, most likely, immediately after the physical launch of the “new old” chain, a powerful “Pump-and-Dump” scheme can be expected, after which the price will stabilize and continue to moderate growth as the number of followers increases.
“Despite the fact that there are almost no doubts about the launch of ETHW / ETHPOW, we still would not recommend buying futures for a project whose fate is under great question and serious pressure from the community,” the analyst warned.
According to him, the safest option to participate in this fork is to simply withdraw your funds and / or buy plain Ethereum shortly before the fork to a non-custodial (OTC) wallet. Then the classic implementation of the fork will simply “give” the owners new ETHW tokens after the split, and you can do whatever you want with them, Zuborev said.
At the same time, financial analyst BitRiver drew attention to the fact that BitMEX launched a futures product based on ETHPoW tokens, and after its launch, the price fell by 83%, to $16.30. Market volumes are low, investors and speculators ignore the token, as the risks of losing money remain, Antonov explained. In his opinion, you need to look at the dynamics of the pair after the update of the Ethereum network and the start of mining of the new ETHPoW token.
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