Vitalik Buterin argues another fork unlikely to harm Ethereum ‘significantly’ after Merge

After the Ethereum (ETH) network’s Merge event in September, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin downplayed the potential effect of any future hard forks on the cryptocurrency. 

At the weekend’s (Aug 5-7) development gathering known as ETHSeoul, Vitalik Buterin revealed, “I don’t expect Ethereum to really be significantly harmed by another fork,” CoinDesk reported on August 8.

The Ethereum blockchain is scheduled to migrate to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system in the next month, an event known as The Merge. This is a change that developers claim will make it cheaper, quicker, and more ecologically friendly. 

What’smore the long-anticipated Merge update is set to act as an event catalyst, possibly transforming Ethereum into ‘a global institutional-grade asset,’ according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report published on August 3.

Merge will result in a loss of revenue for ETH miners

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The transition away from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) system will lead to the loss of a source of revenue for Ethereum miners. Currently, miners are rewarded for their efforts with ether tokens. According to the statistics, miners created more than $620 million worth of ether in the month of July. 

Buterin claims that proponents of the PoW consensus architecture moved their attention to Ethereum Classic when that network was launched in 2016 since it was clear at the time that Ethereum would ultimately switch to PoS, but Ethereum Classic would not. 

He said:

“I think Ethereum Classic already has a superior community and a superior product for people kind of with those pro-proof-of-work values and preferences. Pretty much everyone in the Ethereum ecosystem is supportive of the move to proof-of-stake validation and is quite united.”

A price increase in Ethereum Classic (ETC) is probably going to be triggered by the movement of ETH miners as the Merge gets closer. The majority expects the present hash rate allocated to Ethereum to migrate over to the ETC network following the upgrade as the most straightforward option for moving miners since it saves their equipment from becoming worthless.

Finbold reported on July 30 that $1.7 billion inflowed into Ethereum Classic’s market cap in a week, given ETC has the potential to accommodate migrating Ethereum miners since they will need minor changes to start mining on Ethereum Classic. 

EthereumPoW network

A hard fork has been proposed by prominent Chinese miners such as Chandler Guo in order to allow miners to continue supporting a freshly separated proof-of-work version of the Ethereum chain even after the Ethereum network has undergone The Merge and been verified by stakers. 

Notably, Justin Sun has pledged a portion of the one million ether that he now has to the development of the so-called EthereumPoW network.

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