Ethereum PoW team to freeze selected contracts in order to preserve user assets after the hard fork, but the community fights back.

By September 15–16, Ethereum (ETH) is scheduled to switch from a proof-of-work (PoW) chain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. The Ethereum ecosystem’s PoW mining would end as a result of this.

The terminal total difficulty has been set to 58750000000000000000000.

This means the ethereum PoW network now has a (roughly) fixed number of hashes left to mine.https://t.co/3um744WkxZ predicts the merge will happen around Sep 15, though the exact date depends on hashrate. pic.twitter.com/9YnloTWSi1

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 12, 2022

The supporters of PoW, mainly miners, have chosen to maintain the PoW chain in face of such a significant upgrade. Uniswap Sushiswap, Aave, Compound, and other decentralized exchanges are examples of liquidity providers (LPs) that the core PoW team of EthereumPoW (ETHW) advised ETH investors to withdraw their funds from on Tuesday (DEX).

Ethereum PoW Team To Freeze Selected Contracts

To preserve user assets after the hard fork, the core team announced they would temporarily freeze ETHW coins in a few LPs of DEX and lending protocols.

The Ethereum PoW hard fork, according to the core team, would result in users’ ETHW tokens being placed in LPs being swapped or lent out by hackers and scientists using obsolete and worthless USDT, USDC, and WBTC, which will result in a “big mess for the community.”

The main team reported:

“ETHW Core has to make the hard decision to temporarily freeze certain LP contracts to protect users’ ETHW tokens until the protocols’ controllers or communities find a better way.”

The company added that staking contracts involving just one asset, such as the ETH2.0 deposit contract and Wrapped Ether, will not be affected by freezing.

Community Fights Back

Many members of the community were opposed to the idea of freezing users’ assets without their permission. The core team was reminded by users that LP smart contracts that are hardcoded into the ETH clients are categorically not decentralized.

Freezing hardcoded LP smart contracts into the ETH clients is definitively not decentralized.

If some group of people can take the decision of which LP contracts to freeze, then the value proposition of ETHW being a decentralized, secure blockchain is gone.

— Alberto Rosas (@albertorosasg) August 17, 2022

The bulk of cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin issuers have backed the future Ethereum PoS network. However, according to the cryptocurrency exchanges, if a branched PoW chain gains popularity and there is enough demand from the community, they would be willing to offer the forked token as well.

ETH mining is estimated to be worth $19 billion by the crypto-analytics company Messari. Miners should favor a hard fork given that mining other POW tokens like Ethereum Classic (ETC) or Bitcoin (BTC) won’t be as profitable with billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure on the line.

The PoW fork has also drawn criticism from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who described it as an act of outsiders’ greed. He advised miners to switch to ETC as well.

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