In 32 days, Ethereum is expected to upgrade from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system after the network used PoW for seven years. While the testnets have implemented the new rules, most people envision a relatively smooth mainnet transition. However, another chain is expected to fork away from the Ethereum branch and since August 8, the proposed fork called ETHW has gained market value in a few IOU markets. Despite the value gathered, the potential token lost more than half of its USD value in less than six days’ time.

Ever since the bitcoin miner Chandler Guo started talking about a new proof-of-work (PoW) version of Ethereum, after the chain transitions to proof-of-stake (PoS), the idea has gained some traction. The crypto asset exchange Poloniex revealed the launch of ETHW markets and there’s a new website called ethereumpow.org.

Statistics from coinmarketcap.com indicate that MEXC, Digifinex, Gate.io, and Poloniex list ETHW IOU markets. But the ETHW site also claims to have connections with a number of “communities, exchanges, miners and individuals [that] have worked together to make ETHW possible.” Twitter vertical trends show that the ETHW fork is controversial among die-hard Ethereum supporters and Ethereum Classic supporters have chimed in as well.

The website shows connections through ETHW exchange listings, and alleged mining supporters with mentioned businesses such as Binance, FTX, Antpool, Poolin, Coincheck, Huobi, Hiveon, Flexpool.io, 2miners.com, F2pool, and Bitfly. ETHW has been listed on exchanges offering IOU markets for roughly six days so far.

$ETC is the original chain. $ETH is a fork. And $ETHW is a fork of a fork. pic.twitter.com/0PkIYu4RrE

Ethereumpow.org also claims it has a bridge partner and advertises Bridgetech’s logo on the site. When markets officially launched and ETHW came out the gate, the value jumped to an all-time high of around $141.36 per unit.

Since then, ETHW has lost 53% in value and compared to ETH’s current value, ETHW represents 3.2% at current market prices. ETHW tapped an all-time low on August 10, 2022, reaching $65.17 per coin and it’s up 1.9% at the time of writing, trading for roughly $66.10 per unit.

There are 5 main differences between this ETH1-ETH2 fork and the ETC-ETH fork. (1) The ETC-ETH fork was mainly due to ideology. It was PoW vs PoW; the miners could just mine whichever chain was more profitable.

— Galois Capital (@Galois_Capital) August 6, 2022

ETHW’s value is more comparable to ethereum classic’s (ETC) current value, which is around $43.86 per unit at the time of writing. That means ETHW is $23 higher in USD value today than ETC’s current value. Yet many crypto supporters have discussed how ETC was created for ideological reasons while ETHW is being called a “money grab.”

Most of the mining pools mentioned on ethereumpow.org already mine ethereum classic (ETC). For instance, 2miners.com is the second largest ETC mining pool, dedicating close to six terahash per second (TH/s) to ETC’s PoW network.

What ETH PoW fork will mean for me:

Scenario A: value is split across both chains Strategy: Sell $ETHW for $ETH Outcome: more $ETH than before.

Scenario B:$ETHW value is $0 from beginning Strategy: post memes laughing about Outcome: free fun

Can’t imagine a better event

— Alejandro Perezpayá (@aperezpaya) August 6, 2022

As far as the ETHW fork, if even one of the aforementioned mining pools that allegedly support the chain start mining it, ETHW will become a reality. Presently, dozens of ethereum mining pools are seemingly mining ETH to the very end, as the crypto asset’s rise has made it quite valuable to do so.

ETH’s hashrate is much larger than ETC’s and so far, there’s been no meaningful rises in ETC’s hashrate, except for the initial spike on July 28, 2022. Ethereum is currently one of the most profitable crypto networks to mine today, as Bitmain’s new Antminer E9, with 2.4 gigahash per second (GH/s) or 0.0024 TH/s, can get an estimated profit of around $63.43 per day.

What do you think about the proposed Ethereum fork and how the IOU token has already shed half of its value this past week? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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