Vitalik Buterin calls out ETHW hard fork proponents as “trying to make a quick buck” News ▸ South Korea ▸ Ethereum ▸ Interview
Vitalik Buterin calls out ETHW hard fork proponents as “trying to make a quick buck”
Vitalik Buterin believes a proof-of-work hard fork of Ethereum is being pushed by "people who own exchanges trying to make a quick buck."
2 min read
Updated: Jul. 5, 2023 at 11:11 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Speaking in a closed press conference during ETHSeoul in South, Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin, called people pushing for a hard fork of Ethereum to retain proof-of-work “simply trying to make a quick buck.”
Justin Sun recently announced support for a hard fork of Ethereum post-merge by listing two new tokens on his Poloniex exchange. The tokens will be named ETHS and ETHW, related to proof-of-stake and proof-of-work, respectively. ETHW will represent a newly created hard fork of Ethereum where GPU miners continue to mine Ethereum after the merge of the Beacon chain. Some Chinese miners have reportedly signed up to be a part of this new chain in conjunction with Justin Sun.
Further, Sun is looking to incentivize a move to fork Ethereum to retain a version of the current network within a proof-of-work chain. He is offering up to 1 million ETHW to build a developer community should the chain become realized.
We currently have more than 1 million #ETH. If #Ethereum hard fork succeeds, we will donate some forked #ETHW to #ETHW community and developers to build #ethereum ecosystem. https://t.co/ee4kGSuVoK
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) August 4, 2022
Vitalik stated that he has seen nothing but support for proof-of-stake from within the community and noted that most people who want to keep proof-of-work are “outsiders” from the Ethereum ecosystem.
Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, is undoubtedly an outsider to the Ethereum ecosystem by many accounts. Vitalik also referenced that proponents of a hard fork “own exchanges and are just trying to make a quick buck.”
Speaking on a question as to whether a hard fork could cause issues with NFTs living on both forked chains, Vitalik replied, “I foresee market confusion if that proof-of-work hard fork becomes something substantial.”
However, Vitalik quickly put the onus on the proof-of-work chain instead of accepting that this could cause issues with what many will consider “mainnet.” Should a fork gain traction, Vitalik expressed, “I’m sure there’s going to be problems… if they want to make a fork, it’s on them to mitigate those problems.”
EDIT: Fixed typo of proof-of-stake
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Liam 'Akiba' Wright
Also known as "Akiba," Liam Wright is a reporter, podcast producer, and Editor-in-Chief at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change.
Latest South Korea Stories
Latest Ethereum Stories
Featured Story
Advertise Here
In this article
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Vitalik Buterin stands as the pioneering force behind Ethereum, a transformative community-driven platform that fuels the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and underpins a myriad of decentralized applications.