Several reactions have come from the crypto industry with the upcoming Ethereum upgrade, the Merge. The upgrade is expected to transit the Ethereum blockchain from using the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to that of Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
This transition would change transaction validation processing from mining to staking. Hence, many people are getting different ideas on what to expect during and after the transition.
While there is a waiting period for the Merge, many have expressed concerns over some potential hard forks. In addition, the Ethereum network still has some miners operating on the system, creating more tension within and outside the community.
With the completion of the Merge, the miners could move over to Ethereum Classic, which is still operating as a PoW. But if they continue to work on the Ethereum blockchain, they would hard fork the chain.
In a recent report, some Ethereum miners have declared a technology for freezing liquidity pools. This came mainly from the ETHPOW group. This group of miners plans to hard fork the Ethereum blockchain after its transition.
The ETHPOW group has posted on its Twitter platform the plan to freeze some lending protocols and smart contracts.
In addition, the group revealed that there would be a compromise of customers’ ETHW tokens deposited in different liquidity pools. Some listed pools that could be affected include Aave, Compound, and Uniswap.
With its plan, the group revealed that its freezing action would not include any staking contract that deals with a single asset. However, the ETHW core advises customers to remove their deposits from all liquidity pools. This majorly concerns lending platforms and decentralized exchanges.
In its explanation, the group stated that its action is to ensure users’ protection from hackers and fraudsters. It mentioned that hackers and other bad actors could easily swap the deposited tokens with less valued WBTC, USDT, and USDC. Hence, it has decided to freeze smart contracts of lending pools pending a better solution from the platforms.
Reactions To Ethereum Miners Plan
Following the post of the Ethereum miners, several people criticized the move. Most crypto big shots and influencers are not left out in the reactions. However, a developer and blockchain auditor, Foobar, questions the group’s capacity to perform its ridiculous plan.
Also, the CEO of Gamium Corp, Alberto Rosas, doubts the decentralization of the Ethereum blockchain. He maintained that this move is huge for a small group to accomplish. For him, the ETHW chain may end as a slow centralized chain with no market value.
It’s quite evident that the Ethereum miners are pressuring the entire ecosystem with their freezing plans.
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