‘No’ to Proof of Work (PoW)

To ensure continuity for protocol users on Ethereum, Chainlink will continue to support the layer-one blockchain after The Merge takes place and Ethereum transitions to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism. However, Chainlink’s oracle engine will not support fork versions of Ethereum based on the old Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism.

For Ethereum developers and dApps teams wondering about The Merge, Chainlink advises them to pause smart contract operations to avoid unforeseen problems and protect end users. DApps that operate on Ethereum forks, especially PoW forks, can face difficulties both at the protocol and application level, increasing the risk for users.

Developers also need to ensure external dependent contracts will still work well during and after the merge.

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What’s the Problem?

On Twitter, Galois Capital explores potential controversies caused by an Ethereum chain split. The account speculates that, similar to how Bitcoin Cash spun out of the Bitcoin fork event in 2017, many individuals and organizations will create copies of Ethereum PoW with different purposes.

Galois suggests that a PoW fork of Etherum will be maintained to ensure work for miners, calling it ETH1 in competition with the new PoS Ethereum they call ETH2, and posing critical questions on Twitter.

The ensuing discussion even caught the attention of Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin.

“Wait I read the above and I'm confused. Why does twitter say that so many people I know follow  @Galois_Capital  ? Is it a famous parody account?” Buterin said on Twitter.

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Exchanges Join the Game

Exchanges are also reacting to the potential for an Ethereum split. For example, on Aug. 7, Poloniex opened trading for two “potential forked” tokens, ETHS and ETHW, to predict which direction users would take after The Merge.

ETHS will represent tokens on the PoS chain, while ETHW will represent the PoW chain. If a chain split occurs, users can redeem ETHS for the new ETH, and ETHW for the ETH PoW token on the post-split chain with the most hashrate.

However if the Merge happens smoothly and there is no split, ETHS will be converted to the new ETH and the ETHW token will be suspended and delisted.

MEXC and Huobi exchanges are considering making a similar move to Poloniex.

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