If Ethereum Splits, Leading Exchanges are ‘Likely’ to List ETHPoW Token – BitMEX

cryptonews.com:

A potential Ethereum (ETH) PoW split chain may continue to function but would have substantial issues to resolve along the way, according to the research team of the major crypto exchange BitMEX.

The analysts looked into the possibility of a split in Ethereum when the Merge happens, resulting in the expected Ethereum 2.0 and a new ETHPoW blockchain. The Merge is the much-anticipated moment when Ethereum transitions from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). But not everybody is looking forward to it – specifically the PoW miners – so the team looked into the viability of a chain that would continue working on PoW, which they said “may provide an exciting opportunity for traders and speculators in the short to medium term.”

The ETHPoW chain “is almost guaranteed to be a minority chain with respect to the coin price and economic chain usage,” the analysts said, arguing that,

"Although there are many technical challenges that ETHPoW faces, as long as the chain survives, it looks likely that there could be positive narratives around the coin and leading centralized exchanges are likely to list it."

It is not easy to guess if and how long such a chain would live, but it stands a chance, and each of the challenges the researchers listed appears to have a solution of some sort, albeit some more difficult than the others. One of the major ones is the already postponed Ice Age that will be set off by a difficulty bomb – meant to make the PoW mining network difficulty exponentially harder as time progresses until it becomes impossible to mine.

“If the PoW chain is going to persist in the long run, it may need a new hardfork client to permanently remove the ice age feature,” said the researchers. This would need a series of