During a candid address at the ETHSeoul conference in South Korea, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered sharp criticism against advocates for an Ethereum Proof-of-Work hard fork, suggesting their motives are purely financial. He stated that those pushing to preserve the PoW consensus mechanism are 'just trying to make a quick buck.'
This controversy follows a bold move by Tron founder Justin Sun, who announced support for the contentious fork by listing two new tokens on his Poloniex exchange: ETHS and ETHW. These tokens represent the prospective Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work chains, respectively. The ETHW token is specifically designed for a new, forked version of the Ethereum blockchain where GPU miners can continue their operations following the Merge with the Beacon chain. Reports indicate that a coalition of Chinese miners has already aligned with Justin Sun's initiative.
To further incentivize the fork, Sun has pledged up to 1 million ETHW tokens to foster a developer community, should the new network successfully launch. He publicly confirmed this commitment on Twitter.
We currently have more than 1 million #ETH. If #Ethereum hard fork succeeds, we will donate some of the #ETHW to the #ETHW community and developers to build the #ethereum ecosystem. https://t.co/ee4kGSuVoK
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宙晨 (@justinsuntron) August 4, 2022
In stark contrast, Buterin highlighted a lack of internal support for maintaining a PoW system, noting that the vast majority of the community favors the transition to Proof-of-Stake. He characterized the proponents of the fork as 'outsiders' to the core Ethereum ecosystem.
Justin Sun, as the founder of the competing Tron blockchain, fits this description of an 'outsider.' Vitalik's critique extended further, suggesting that the main backers of the Ethereum Proof-of-Work fork 'own exchanges and are just trying to make a quick buck,' implying a conflict of interest where these platforms could profit from trading a new asset.
When questioned about potential complications, such as NFTs existing on both the new PoW chain and the original Ethereum, Vitalik predicted a 'market failure' if the forked chain were to gain any significant traction. He was quick to shift the responsibility for resolving these issues onto the creators of the fork, dismissing concerns that it would impact the stability of what is considered the 'mainnet.'
Vitalik asserted, 'I’m sure there’s going to be problems… if they want to make a fork, it’s on them to mitigate those problems.'
