The Ethereum hard fork executed last week as a means of reimbursing investors who lost funds in the collapse of a major project has resulted in the creation of a competing currency on a blockchain replicating the platform’s original consensus rules prior to the fork.
Announced last week, a project called Ethereum Classic is continuing to mine a version of the blockchain in which funds were never restored to investors in The DAO. As observed here , the Ethereum Classic blockchain is now approximately 4,000 blocks behind the ethereum blockchain supported by ethereum’s original developers and community members.
Initially dismissed due to a lack of vocal support, that narrative is now changing as digital currency exchanges and wallet providers move to extend services to those using the Ethereum Classic blockchain. The increase in institutional support has created new momentum for a project has been active for days without support from miners, exchanges and other key components to an open blockchain ecosystem.
Announced earlier today , Poloniex, long the largest exchange for ethers (ETH), the digital currency native to the ethereum blockchain (sometimes referred to now as Ethereum Core or Ethereum One), added support for the native token running on the Ethereum Classic blockchain, called classic ether (ETC).
In order to do so, Poloniex provided traders who owned ethers with a balance of classic ethers corresponding to the amount of ether they held on the exchange at the time of the fork, a move that effectively provided traders with new capital.
At press time, the event has succeeded in invoking a highly politicized debate, given its implications for wider conversations across the blockchain industry.
In addition to touching on whether a blockchain network can or should be " immutable ", or provide an unalterable transaction history, the effort has evoked the passions of the bitcoin […]
