The next hard fork, which took place yesterday on the Ethereum Classic (ETC/USD) network, does not involve dividing the network and the emergence of a new token, but is intended to solve problems associated with the profitability of mining. In essence, this is a soft fork, an upgrade of the network to remove the “unnecessary function” of the project.
The essence of hard fork was to remove the so-called “difficulty bomb” that was originally placed in the ETC network. This function changes the algorithm and increases the complexity of calculating each subsequent block, which makes mining impossible and pointless in the end. The “difficulty bomb” added by the Ethereum developers acted as an impetus for the transition from the proof of work (POW) protocol to the concept of proof of stake (POS). It was the development paths of Ethereum that became the stumbling block that led to the first fork and the emergence of Ethereum Classic.
Ethereum remained faithful to the original plan and is already preparing to switch to the POS Casper protocol, the main task of which is to introduce the Proof-of-Stake algorithm and change the consensus algorithm.
Developers Ethereum Classic took a different route, deciding to remove some of the code responsible for the “difficulty bomb” and stick to the protocol (POW) proof-of-work algorithm.
Thus, the update further increased both the technical and ideological distance between the classic and Ethereum blocks. Technically, the hard fork mitigated the difficulty of increasing mining difficulty after block 5,900,000, thereby making life easier for miners, which is what the PoW ecosystem is essentially based on, especially for ETC.
Ideologically, Ethereum Classic once again emphasized its conservative philosophy, adhering to the Proof-of-work (POW) decision-making algorithm and the belief that the new Proof-of-Stake (POS) algorithm lacks completeness.
According to the developers, the update was successful and there were no signs of negative consequences or errors; most nodes and mining pools reported updating their software long before the planned upgrade network.
The fork had little impact on the Ethereum Classic rate, the cryptocurrency is trading at $15.25 (+5%).
Currently there are 101.9 million in circulation, the total trade turnover is $135,077,576
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