The Ethereum ecosystem is known for multiple hard forks throughout the years. One of those hard forks created a new currency known as Ethereum Classic. With the Metropolis upgrade on the horizon, it is not entirely surprising to see community members preparing for these changes. One project has caught our attention, as it is seemingly an attempt to create a third form of Ethereum in the future. Ethereum Cash will introduce some interesting new changes.
What is the Deal With Ethereum Cash?
It is always interesting to see how community members oppose upcoming changes in the world of cryptocurrency. This occurs especially whenever a hard fork is on the horizon, such as the Metropolis upgrade coming to Ethereum in the near future. It is not entirely surprising to see some people oppose this concept even though it introduces big changes to make the ecosystem better over time.
The two changes some people seemingly dislike relate to how the so-called difficulty bomb will be delayed. As most people know, Ethereum’s difficulty bomb will effectively make mining impossible over time. Delaying this change by another 18 months means Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake will take a lot longer, which is not what most people had hoped for at this point in time.
This further delay of the difficulty bomb means the current Ethereum block reward will go from 5 ETH to 3 ETH. That is another change that a lot of people are not too happy about, even though it makes perfect sense. A reduction in generated coins reduces the incentive for miners and reduces inflation at the same time. It will also pave the way for the change to Proof of Stake (PoS) in the future.
There are, however, some community members who feel these proposals pose a significant risk to the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole. They have created a contingency plan, which makes a lot of sense even though it remains to be seen whether it is needed in the first place. This contingency plan is called Ethereum Cash and serves as a community-activated hard fork. It will go into effect right before the Byzantium hard fork, which heralds the first part of the Metropolis upgrade.
The Ethereum Cash fork will follow the existing rules of the Ethereum main chain. It will not feature the block reward reduction and switch to Proof of Stake. Instead, it will remain a completely Proof of Work blockchain until a change is made. There will also be a 10% pre-mine inflation, which will represent 1% of the total supply. This inflation constitutes a “developing and storing value” stake, which will be mined privately. At that point, the repository will be made public moving forward.
It is not entirely surprising to see a contingency plan drafted for the upcoming Ethereum hard fork. Unfortunately, it is slowly becoming the new norm to counter any hard fork with a different solution altogether. For the time being, it remains to be seen if the Ethereum Cash fork will succeed or pose any major challenges for Ethereum itself. Another version of Ethereum to contend with will certainly introduce some intriguing changes over time.
