The long-awaited merge from the Ethereum (ETH) network is very close and that will mean the network will switch from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS). In fact, this ensures that ethereum miners will no longer be needed. However, a group of those miners, ETHPoW, is doing everything they can to also after the merge to remain relevant.
ETHPoW and the Ethereum fork
The purpose of ETHPoW is actually quite simple. They want a hard fork establishing the Ethereum network that will simply continue to run on a proof-of-work consensus model. That way, miners necessary and they do not lose their source of income.
It would also mean that two different blockchains would emerge, each with their own tokens. The Ethereum network that is therefore merge will have evolved into a proof-of-stake network, and one that will be much like the Ethereum network as we know it today. In a open letter published today, the team at ETHPoW states that such a fork is ‘inevitable’.
In addition, the ETHPoW team has contacted the Ethereum Classic team. Many Ethereum miners will after the merge most likely move to Ethereum Classic, but this network is nowhere near big enough to accommodate all the miners. Therefore, according to ETHPoW, there should be two separate PoW versions of the Ethereum network.
“ETC’s small pool cannot contain the entire compute pool of ETH at all. This is a hard fact. In view of such hard facts, this hard fork is inevitable.”
Resistance from ETH miners
That Ethereum miners would be against the merge makes perfect sense. Mining ETH tokens is their source of income and the switch to proof-of-stake has dried up this source of income.
However, according to the founder of the Ethereum network, Vitalik Buterin, everyone except these miners is really excited about the upcoming merge. He therefore considers the chance small that a PoW fork, such as ETHPoW wants to achieve, will be successful.