Hard fork “ETHPow” collapses by 90 percent

The start of the new Ethereum Proof-of-Work Blockchain (ETHPow), which renegade Ethereum miners went live shortly after the merger, was more than bumpy. The coin of the Ethereum hard fork, which continues to rely on Proof of Work instead of Proof of Stake, has fallen from its all-time high of $58 to $5 in about two weeks, according to CoinMarketCap. Even the initiator of the hard fork, Chandler Gou, believes bankruptcy is likely for 90 percent of the miners. In an interview with Coindesk, he had to admit that the start of his blockchain was rather “mediocre”.

network chaos

Immediately after the merge, the ETHPoW team published the new network data of their blockchain for the hard fork on Twitter. A few moments later, some users complained about the unavailability of the network. Apparently, the ETHPoW team had chosen an already existing chain ID for their network, which caused overlaps with another network. This amateur error was followed by mockery from the community.

A developer of the fork Ethereums, Ethereum Classic, which has existed since 2016, also criticized the lack of important infrastructure of the new proof-of-work chain. on Twitter Among other things, he questioned the absence of GitHub entries, block explorers or compatible wallets. This made ETHPoW almost unusable for most users right from the start.

Miner not convinced

In addition to potential new users, ETHPoW has not managed to win over its actual target group, the former Ethereum miners. They actually wanted to lure them to ETHPoW with the opportunity to continue their business model. However, the hash rate of ETHPows has dropped to 30 Terra hashes per second (TH/s) since the chain started. A sign that a majority of miners have switched to other alternatives. For comparison: the proof-of-work blockchain Ethereum Classic can register 189 TH/s. Around the merge, it reached a new all-time high.

The collapsed price of the ETHPoW token also makes mining on this chain even more unprofitable. As with Ethereum, around 13,500 ETHW are issued daily, which corresponds to a value of only 167,000 US dollars. That’s just a meager 0.8 percent of the total daily value ($20 million) of the former Ethereum chain.

Replay-Attacke

To make matters worse, an exploit took place on the ETHPoW chain shortly after launch. The so-called “replay attack” was warned of as one of the greatest risks of a hard fork in preparation for the merge. Nevertheless, attackers apparently managed to carry out such an attack and thus steal 200 ETHW.

According to the Blockchian security company BlockSec this is due to the overlapping chain ID. The actions on one blockchain can thus be repeated on the other. The attackers took advantage of this when bridging ETHW tokens. For many, this was the final nail in the coffin. Shortly after the exploit was announced, the price of the ETHW token plummeted another 37 percent, leaving the image of a blockchain in tatters.