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Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Downplays Ethereum PoW Fork, Hopes It ‘Doesn’t Lead to People Losing Money’

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Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Downplays Ethereum PoW Fork, Hopes It 'Doesn't Lead to People Losing Money'

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently discussed what he thinks about the recent Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) fork topic that’s been finding its way into a number of conversations within the crypto community. Buterin remarked at the ETH-Seoul conference over the weekend, that he believes the people introducing the forked token concept are basically a “couple of outsiders” that “mostly just want to make a quick buck.”

Vitalik Buterin Gives His Opinion on the Proposed Ethereum PoW Fork Idea


A lot of people within the crypto community have been discussing a possible ETH PoW fork (ETHW) that is unique from the existing Ethereum Classic blockchain. Bitcoin.com News reported on the influential Chinese crypto miner Chandler Guo, who initiated the ETHW conversation after explaining that he participated in the birth of Ethereum Classic (ETC). The idea then gained more traction, as a website called ethereumpow.org was published and a few exchanges decided to list the fork.

Presently, the IOU tokens for ETHW are worth $138.69 per token, according to coinmarketcap.com metrics and against Tron’s USDD stablecoin, ETHW is exchanging hands for 142.27 USDD on Poloniex. This weekend, co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin discussed ETHW during a Q&A session at the ETH-Seoul conference. Buterin downplayed the possibility of a fork of this kind seeing long-term acceptance. “I’m not expecting it to have substantial, long-term adoption,” Buterin stressed.

The Ethereum developer and co-founder also talked about Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Buterin complimented the ETC community. “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,” Buterin stated. When Buterin was asked about the ETHW proposal, he explained that those involved with its creation are just a “couple of outsiders that basically have exchanges, and mostly just want to make a quick buck.” Buterin added:

I hope that whatever happens, doesn’t lead to people losing money.

Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert Discusses ETHW, Buterin Doesn’t See Fork Harming Ethereum’s Ecosystem


Buterin’s commentary follows the statements the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), Barry Silbert, has made about the ETHW idea on Twitter. Silbert tweeted to the Galois Capital account on Twitter and said: “[For what it’s worth], our full support is behind [Ethereum proof-of-stake], in addition to [Ethereum Classic], and have zero intention to support any [Ethereum proof-of-work] fork. [Ethereum] miners should move to [Ethereum Classic] to maximize their revenue long-term. Simple as that.”

Silbert has also made other statements on Twitter directly to some of Chandler Guo’s threads, and Guo asks Silbert in one tweet: “why only [Ethereum Classic]?” The DCG executive replied and said it is “the smart play for [ethereum] miners” and he also mentioned that Antpool is leading the initiative to support the Ethereum Classic chain. When someone told Silbert to stop engaging with Guo, Silbert responded and said: “I like and respect Chandler. Just disagree with him on this strategy.”

Meanwhile, at this weekend’s ETH-Seoul conference, Buterin detailed that he doesn’t expect Ethereum (ETH) to be deterred by the possibility of another fork. “I don’t expect Ethereum to really be significantly harmed by another fork,” Buterin remarked. On Twitter, it’s business as usual for Buterin, as the software developer tweeted about stealth addresses for ERC721 (non-fungible tokens) NFTs on Monday. “A low-tech approach to add a significant amount of privacy to the NFT ecosystem,” the Ethereum co-founder said.

What do you think about Vitalik Buterin’s opinion concerning the possible Ethereum PoW fork that has been discussed ahead of The Merge? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

A Second Ethereum PoW Chain Idea Gains Traction, Poloniex to List ‘Potential Forked’ Token Markets

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A Second Ethereum PoW Chain Idea Gains Traction, Poloniex to List 'Potential Forked' Token Markets

Five days ago, the influential Chinese crypto miner, Chandler Guo, explained that a proof-of-work (PoW) version of Ethereum is “coming soon” as the community prepares for the network’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) next month. As usual, the idea of a forked token gets people excited and some individuals get upset, and even though the token hasn’t been created yet, there’s now a website called ethereumpow.org summarizing the coin’s goals.

The Merge Upgrade Could Produce an Ethereum PoW Fork, Poloniex to List 2 ‘Potential Forked’ Ethereum Token Markets

If Ethereum (ETH) transitions into a full PoS blockchain next month, there’s a very good chance a PoW version will fork away from the current version. The Merge has a pencilled-in date that could take place on the week of September 19, or 44 days from now. Guo is a well known crypto miner and he played a specific role in the 2016 creation of the blockchain network Ethereum Classic (ETC). On August 1, Bitcoin.com News reported on Guo tweeting about a PoW version of Ethereum “coming soon” and how he said, “ETH PoW is DAO.”

Now there’s a new website touting the not-yet-born ethereum PoW version called ethereumpow.org, and the web portal claims a white paper is coming soon. The website’s “community [and] contributors” section says: “It takes a village to raise our Ethereumpow. Numbers of communities, exchanges, miners, and individuals have worked together to make ETHW possible.” Domain statistics from Whois records indicate that the web portal was registered on July 31, 2022. The ETHW website owner’s name and identity has been “redacted for privacy,” the internet record listing site says.

The cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, backed by Tron’s Justin Sun, has announced that the trading platform will list ETHW. After Poloniex tweeted about listing ETHW, Sun retweeted the announcement to his 3.3 million Twitter followers. “The Ethereum Merge is expected to be in September 2022,” the exchange wrote. “Poloniex was the world’s first exchange to list ETH and now the first one to support potential forking of ETH with the listing of two potential forked ETH tokens: ETHS & ETHW.”

Poloniex Led the Charge During ETC’s Creation

Poloniex was also the first exchange to list ethereum classic (ETC). In a now-deleted tweet, one of the members of the Slock.it development team, Stephan Tual, remarked about Poloniex “leading the charge.” At the time, the Poloniex ‘troll-box’ was going wild and the exchange saw roughly $11.89 million in ETC trade volume on July 24, 2016. While it has experienced a number of 51% attack hiccups, ETC still exists today as it’s currently the 19th largest crypto asset in terms of market valuation. In an interview with Bloomberg, Chandler Guo talked about the advantages of ETHW in comparison to ETC.

Born at ETH block height 1,920,001, Ethereum Classic has reaped benefits from the pencilled-in Merge date, and during the last two weeks it has gained 51.2%, and ETC jumped 148.5% higher over the last 30 days. ETC has also seen a slight hashrate increase but during the last week, ETC’s hashrate rise has tapered off. Months before the most recent hashrate spike, ETC maintainers wrote that the community welcomed Ethash miners to the Ethereum Classic ecosystem.

Bitmex Research: ‘It Is Likely That the Chain Is Extended Past the Merge Point, However, Whether or Not This Chain Has Any Economic Significance Is an Open Question’

Furthermore, on August 1, Bitmex Research published a blog post called “ETHPoW vs ETH2,” which examines a hypothetical debate over the two potential Ethereum networks. The blog post, written by Bitmex Research, concludes “by arguing that although the ETHPoW chain may have many technical challenges and its long term viability is in question, its existence may provide an exciting opportunity for traders and speculators in the short to medium term.”

In addition to Poloniex, Huobi Global plans to list any potential forks that are created when The Merge takes place. Huobi will distribute forked assets if they meet specific requirements, the company said on Friday. When Poloniex releases the “Potential forked” token markets next week, it will be interesting to see what traders and speculators value the ETHW token. It’s quite possible the futures markets could overshadow ETC’s recent gains.

What do you think about the possibility of an ETHW chain that splits away from Ethereum when the chain transitions to PoS? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Tron DAO Reserve Purchases $38 Million in TRX to Safeguard the Stablecoin USDD

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Tron DAO Reserve Purchases $38 Million in TRX to Safeguard the Stablecoin USDD

On May 5, Tron’s algorithmic stablecoin USDD went live and so far, the fiat-pegged token has been listed on a number of decentralized finance (defi) protocols. Two days later, the Tron DAO Reserve announced it purchased 504.6 million tron (TRX) to back the algorithmic stablecoin, as the project aims to leverage a decentralized forex reserve similar to Terra’s UST reserves.

Tron DAO Reserve and Justin Sun Reveal a $38 Million TRX Purchase

Terra’s UST reserve system is becoming a popular scheme, and Tron’s USDD stablecoin project is following the pattern. Bitcoin.com News reported on Tron’s algorithmic stablecoin project on April 21, and since then the fiat-pegged crypto asset has officially launched. The project has a number of partners now and USDD is listed on Pancakeswap, Kyberswap, Sunswap, Sun.io, Curve Finance, Uniswap, and Ellipsis.

According to tronscan.org, there’s approximately 211,245,005.49 USDD at the time of writing. Statistics show on Saturday, May 7, 2022, Uniswap version three (v3) is the most active exchange to buy and sell USDD. While USDD’s $211 million market capitalization is small potatoes to Terra’s UST ($18.7B), its only been around for two days. While terrausd (UST) saw $990.3 million in 24 hour trades, USDD saw $2.31 million during the past day. USDD’s market valuation is larger than gemini dollar’s (GUSD) $199.5 million market capitalization.

On Saturday, the Tron DAO and Tron’s founder Justin Sun announced that the team purchased 504,600,250 TRX at an average price of 0.07727 per unit. The purchase will be used as a reserve asset to “safeguard the overall blockchain industry and crypto market,” Tron DAO Reserve account said on Saturday afternoon.

“[Tron DAO Reserve] has done its job,” Tron’s founder Justin Sun tweeted this weekend.

Decentralized, Algorithmic, and Centralized — The Quest to Perfect the Stablecoin Continues

Even though decentralized and algorithmic stablecoins sound cool in theory, there are concerns and questions about whether or not they can maintain a stable peg for as long as they exist. Of course, some centralized stablecoin projects in the past have failed, and Makerdao’s decentralized DAI stablecoin was tested during the March 12, 2020 ‘Black Thursday’ event. Makerdao uses an over-collateralization (OC) process to secure DAI’s USD peg, and two years before the March 12th event, Bennett Tomlin’s blog post predicted ethereum’s (ETH) price stress that could affect DAI’s USD peg.

In November 2020, the OUSD stablecoin issuer, Origin Protocol suffered from a flash loan attack and the coin temporarily lost its peg. During the first week of April, the Waves-based stablecoin neutrino usd (USDN) temporarily dropped from the pegged dollar price. A year ago in April, the stablecoin fei usd’s (FEI) fiat value sunk below a dollar for a short period of time. So far a number of the aforementioned projects rebounded shortly after the lost peg, and the stablecoin projects have maintained a stable peg since then.

The Tron DAO Reserve purchase of 504,600,250 TRX was worth $38.99 million at the time of settlement. The TRX purchase also follows the recent acquisition of $1.4 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC) by the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG). The non-profit LFG now holds 80,394 BTC and $100 million worth of AVAX to safeguard UST. Moreover, Tron DAO has partnered with three crypto institutions who are now deemed whitelisted Tron DAO Reserve members. Tron DAO Reserve institutional partners include Poloniex, Alameda Research, and Amber Group, while Tron DAO Reserve acts as USDD’s “early custodian.”

What do you think about Tron’s algorithmic stablecoin USDD? What do you think about the project purchasing $38 million in TRX to safeguard the stablecoin’s peg? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Commissioner Criticizes SEC for Taking Enforcement-Centric Approach to Crypto Regulation

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Commissioner Criticizes SEC for Taking Enforcement-Centric Approach to Crypto Regulation

A commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has criticized the securities watchdog for focusing on enforcement actions in its oversight of the crypto industry.

SEC Commissioner Slams Agency for Focusing on Enforcement Actions in Regulating Crypto Assets

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticized her own agency Monday after it announced an enforcement action against cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. She noted that the SEC’s action against the exchange “doubles down on the Commission’s enforcement-centric approach to crypto.”

The securities watchdog alleges that Poloniex operated without being registered and planned internally to be “aggressive” in listing more assets in 2017 despite saying publicly that it would not list securities. The regulator said that in 2018 the exchange let users trade assets it deemed “medium risk” of being classified securities.

Peirce, also known as “crypto mom,” argued that the SEC was taking its time in dealing with cryptocurrencies at the time. “During the period at issue here (mid-2017 through 2019), the Commission was moving very cautiously with respect to regulated entities’ engagement with crypto assets,” she explained, elaborating:

Sure, Poloniex could have tried to register. Had it done so, it likely would have waited . . . and waited . . . and waited some more.

The commissioner opined: “Given how slow we have been in determining how regulated entities can interact with crypto, market participants may understandably be surprised to see us come onto the scene now with our enforcement guns blazing.”

A report published in May shows that the SEC has brought 75 enforcement actions against companies and individuals in the crypto industry. Last week, the SEC took action its first action involving decentralized finance (defi).

Recently, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler outlined his approach and priorities to regulating crypto assets, focusing on investor protection.

He said last week that Satoshi Nakamoto’s “innovation is real,” adding that “it has been and could continue to be a catalyst for change in the fields of finance and money.”

What do you think about the SEC focusing on enforcement actions in regulating the crypto industry? Let us know in the comments section below.

SEC Fines Poloniex $10 Million for Operating Unregistered Cryptocurrency Exchange

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Poloniex with operating an unregistered cryptocurrency exchange. Poloniex has agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay $10.34 million.

SEC Hits Poloniex With Cease-and-Desist Order, Penalties

The SEC announced Monday that “Poloniex LLC has agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle charges for operating an unregistered online digital asset exchange.”

From July 2017 through November 2019, Poloniex “facilitated buying and selling of digital asset securities.” The SEC explained that the platform was available to U.S. investors but “Poloniex did not register as a national securities exchange” and was not exempt from registration. Its failure to do so was a violation of Section 5 of the Exchange Act.

“Poloniex attempted to circumvent the SEC’s regulatory regime,” said Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit. “Poloniex chose increased profits over compliance with the federal securities laws by including digital asset securities on its unregistered exchange.”

Noting that “The order establishes a Fair Fund for the benefit of victims,” the SEC detailed:

Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Poloniex agreed to the entry of a cease-and-desist order and agreed to pay disgorgement of $8,484,313, prejudgment interest of $403,995, and a civil penalty of $1.5 million for a total of $10,388,309.

Poloniex is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pluto Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Circle Internet Financial Ltd. The SEC noted that in November 2019, Pluto sold the Poloniex trading platform to a third party.

What do you think about Poloniex paying $10 million to settle with the SEC? Let us know in the comments section below.