ETHW Community Open Letter to ETC Coop: ETC Hasn't Grown Since the Day It Was Born
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ETHW Community Open Letter to ETC Coop: ETC Hasn't Grown Since the Day It Was Born
The upcoming Ethereum "The Merge" upgrade will inevitably result in an Ethereum hard fork. No matter what objections you may have, on the opposing side stand the community, exchanges, miners, and mining equipment manufacturers.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsETC Cooperative Bob Summerwill,
The upcoming Ethereum "The Merge" upgrade will inevitably lead to a hard fork of Ethereum. No matter how strong your objections may be, on the other side stand the community, exchanges, miners, and mining hardware manufacturers. If you haven't recognized this powerful consensus over the past week, we'll simply let facts make it clear to you in September. This is no small undertaking—but the extraordinary, magnificent, and rare sights in life often lie in dangerous and distant places. We are willing to raise our voices for the community and make this attempt.
We have already defused the difficulty bomb and completed preparations on the testnet.
As you said, “Miners switching to mine ‘Ethereum Classic (ETC)’ is the easiest thing in the world.” But is that really true? ETH has accumulated 996 TH/s of hash power, while ETC only has a mere 27 TH/s. Switching to mine ETC sounds simple in theory, but in reality, it’s like forcing all miners into shoes two sizes too small. The ETC network is simply too small to absorb ETH's entire mining pool—that is an undeniable fact. In the face of such a reality, this hard fork is inevitable. Even if not ETHW, there would be ETHX or ETHY.
ETC has never grown since its birth. Over the past four to five years, it has remained stagnant, made no progress, and built no ecosystem. It’s easy to foresee that ETC will remain an eternal infant. It failed to attract significant mining power in the past; naturally, it cannot absorb the massive hash power abandoned by ETHPoS in the future. Therefore, whether willingly or not, ETC must learn to coexist with its newly forked siblings as soon as possible.
Regarding your several concerns, we respond one by one below:
1. Language versions of various chains
This point is not worth worrying about—we’ll start with Geth. What you see as difficult isn’t actually that hard. Our upcoming product release will speak for itself. As of now, our progress includes:
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Difficulty bomb defused
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Chain ID updated
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Replay protection implemented
The core of this entire endeavor lies not in technology, but in people's hearts. Looking back, the ETHW community has existed for less than two weeks—how could we achieve such rapid progress? How could our ranks grow so quickly? Because decentralization is what people truly desire; it is our shared belief. We believe that PoW Ethereum developers, once they realize the significance of decentralization, will also join our revolutionary movement.
What will happen to ETHPoS in the next five years? Will it even still exist? These are uncertain. Just in case, we believe all parties should unite to create a hot backup for a decentralized DeFi and NFT world, compete with ETHPoS, and preserve another possibility for the future.
2. Your concerns about wallet providers and exchanges
The aWSB community has formed a dedicated business team composed of volunteers from around the globe. To date, six exchanges have already supported ETHW IOU and futures trading. Meanwhile, several well-known wallet companies have proactively reached out to us, expressing full support.
As for Metamask, despite their statement against supporting ETHW, it carries little weight. Technically, adding a new chain merely requires adding an RPC endpoint—a single click away for users on our official website. From an interest standpoint, even if Metamask tries to sabotage (after all, it’s been acquired by those who hold Ethereum), which business would dare exclude two hundred million Ethereum wallet users? The wise adapt to circumstances; trying to stop a rolling cart with your arms is futile.
3. Our website lacks “useful” information
As previously mentioned, the community has existed for less than two weeks. We’re juggling many priorities, focusing on more important and substantial tasks. Updating the website—a superficial effort—is something we never intended to prioritize. “Peach and plum trees need no words; a path forms beneath them.” Rather than filling pages with empty rhetoric, one sentence suffices: We are “The Original Ethereum Blockchain Powered by PoW.”
Regarding GitHub code updates: First, this is fundamentally Ethereum’s codebase, already stable and requiring minimal changes. Second, we’ve clearly marked that necessary modifications and test updates will be completed before month-end. Third, technical documentation was largely completed by Ethereum—we only need light reorganization. While these are indeed superficial matters, we thank you for your suggestions nonetheless.
4. The merge timeline is too short; it’s too late to do anything
You need not worry about this. To preserve this permanently stable PoW-based Ethereum chain, volunteers from all sides have flocked in, investing time and money without hesitation. We have established a core development team. Since planning the fork, major code changes have been completed and successfully entered the testing phase. With over a month remaining until the September “Merge” fork, we have ample time for joint testing with mining pools, miners, and hardware vendors.
5. ERC assets on the forked chain will become worthless
You're concerned that after the fork, ERC assets—including stablecoins and other DeFi/NFT assets—will mostly become worthless: if nothing is done post-fork, short-term chaos is inevitable. For example, many hackers and speculators may exploit LP pools and smart contracts across DEXs and lending platforms, leading to asset losses (mainly ETHW) for individuals and institutions.
The community is actively discussing this issue and seeking more comprehensive and concrete measures to protect user assets. We sincerely invite you to join the discussion. However, the aWSB community will present a fair and sound solution to the entire ETH ecosystem within two weeks.
“A leaf blocks the view of Mount Tai”—your worldview of “non-forkability” is precisely this kind of narrow-mindedness. You fail to see the demands of the community, exchanges, and miners; you fail to see the world as it truly is. Why will this hard fork succeed? Because it aligns with the community and the ecosystem.
Take DeFi and NFT engineers and users within the community—they missed DeFi Summer, they missed NFT Summer, and they don’t want to miss ETHW Summer. After the ruins of “The Merge,” how to seize land and rebuild a new frontier era, how to cry out “Are kings and generals born to rule?”—that is the ETHW Summer they refuse to miss again.
Finally, regarding Barry’s tweet: “Other than ETC, we fully support ETH PoS and will not support any ETH PoW forks. ETH miners should move to ETC to maximize their long-term income. It’s that simple.”
I wanted to say something, but seeing that Barry’s Grayscale holds 3 million ETH and 12 million ETC, I recalled the saying, “One’s position determines one’s perspective.” On this matter, I’m certain I have volumes to say—but alas, this space is too small, I cannot write it all down.
Have a good day,
ETHW
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