As the highly awaited Ethereum “merge” upgrade is approaching, the possibility of a fork is more likely, even if its odds for success are dim.
Coinbase is one of the most recent exchanges to open. announced There are plans to list forked tokens.
Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, stated in a blog post that it would evaluate any forked Ethereum tokens after the merger.
According to the blog post, Coinbase said its goal is to “list every asset that is legal and safe to list so that we create a level playing field for all the new assets being created in crypto while continuing to protect our customers.”
If an Ethereum proof-of-work fork arises post-merge, “this asset will be reviewed with the same rigor as any other asset that is listed on our exchange,” Coinbase said.
If such a fork happens, Coinbase said it will determine which chain—proof of stake or miners’ proof of work—retains value.
This is crucial, as Coinbase and other crypto-related companies could be pivotal in ensuring the success of forked chains and tokens.
In early August, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin acknowledged the fork that may occur as a result of the ‘merge’ upgrade. He noted: “If a proof-of-work fork becomes large, then there’s definitely a lot of applications that will have to choose one way or the other.”
Buterin wasn’t concerned about a potential fork but was worried about frauds targeting retail investors during the merger transition. It is possible for users to confuse forked chains named Ethereum because it may not be obvious whether such chains are properly associated Ethereum.
Coinbase acknowledges this in its blog post: “It’s important to always be on high alert for scams, but especially leading up to the Merge. We recommend you don’t send your ETH to anyone in an attempt to ‘upgrade to ETH2’ as there is no ETH2 token… [N]o action is required to upgrade on your part.”
Ethereum may also see major changes
If a fork takes place, it is likely that new ETH tokens will be created. Coinbase and Binance are just a few of the other exchanges that have stated recently they will be evaluating any potential new coins.
Friday, August 26Th, Binance said it is “closely monitoring” the Merge and will support it on launch. As the critical update nears, Binance announced its support for the Proof-of-Stake version ETH and welcomed other ETH-related forked tokens.
Like Coinbase and Binance other crypto firms, such as stablecoin giants Circle, Tether and decentralized exchange Uniswap Labs, have indicated support for the Ethereum proof of stake chain.
Ethereum’s “Merge” update is broadly regarded to be one of the largest crypto events in recent years. The Ethereum merge is scheduled for September 15. During this event, the Ethereum blockchain is expected to undergo the upgrade, which will combine the Ethereum mainnet with the proof-of-stake beacon chain—the network will transition away from the proof-of-work mechanism.
The upgrade will bring the network to a new consensus mechanism that uses validators instead of miners. The change could bring an end to Ethereum’s mining. This is something that Ether (ETH), miners do not like as their source for income will end.
Hence this group of miners and other like-minded crypto community members, including TRON founder Justin Sun and established miner Chandler Gou, among others, have backed a plan for a hard fork that maintains the status quo – Ethereum fork post-merge to create what they call “ETHPoW” (the proof-of-work version of Ethereum).
Crypto miners and like-minded groups are hopeful that with the hard forking, the Ethereum merge would create “ETHPoW.” With this, miners will retain the ability to mine Ethereum.
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