In preparation for the big day of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain merging its mainnet with the beacon chain, Vitalik Buterin has proposed a PoW fork.
The reason he did this is that the merger will transition the network’s operation from a PoW to a PoS system.
PoS has been argued to be susceptible to breaches in security, thus making some think this switch of operations is a bad idea.
Possibly all this contributed to Buterin wanting to kill two birds with a stone.
But this singular act has caused a lot of controversy among crypto companies and analysts.
In fact, the organization behind Ethereum Classic (ETC) ETC cooperative urges them to let go of the PoW fork idea.
In a letter they sent to Chandler Guo, the mega mind behind the Ethereum (ETH) PoW fork project, they stated that they strongly believe the project won’t work.
However key players like Chainlink, USDC, and USDT have all disagreed with Vitalik.
Their lack of support has made it seem like a dead-end because no one may support the PoW fork in the end.
On the other hand, ETH miners want the PoW fork token before the much-anticipated merger scheduled for September 2022.
Looking at it from a positive angle the transitioning to Proof of Stake will prove to be a blessing for the network.
It will improve sustainability, scalability, speed, decentralization, and transparency.
PoW consumes much computing energy compared to PoS; therefore, the switch will cut down Ethereum (ETH) blockchain energy consumption which is speculated to be equivalent to the energy consumed by Netherland.
Presently blockchain networks like Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot all make use of PoS operations and they seem to be doing fine.
However, as we know nothing good comes easy, and the transition will to an extent affect all smart contracts on the network.