The Ethereum blockchain meltdown is expected to take place around 05:05 UTC on September 15. It is a milestone that marks the complete transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism for Ethereum, and eliminates the need for energy-intensive mining by 99.9% when compared to the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. ).
Some miners are also preparing for a hard fork that will allow them to continue using the PoW consensus. Forked coins have proven to be lucrative in the past. Holders of Ethereum (ETH), for example, came to own an equivalent amount of Ethereum Classic (ETC) when it forked in 2016.
In the event of a new hard fork, where the Ethereum blockchain splits into two different networks, users who had ETH stored on-chain would have the same balance of a hypothetical ETHW on the forked chain. It would be an additional token; a totally different asset from ETH.
For ETH holders using hardware wallets, the question is simpler: what would happen to your tokens if there were a hard fork after the merger? We’ve prepared some answers to this question, so you don’t get lost or caught up in a scam for hours to come.
In fact, most hardware wallet providers are taking the same approach: monitoring adoption on the new chain as well as the forked chain before adding any support for an ETHPoW token. In addition, they alert that users do not need to take any action during the update.
Charles Guillemett, Hardware wallet CTO Ledger explained to Cointelegraph that, “In the event of a hard fork, the first thing everyone should know is that any assets the user currently has on the mainnet are safe,” adding that the company “will not support a Proof of Work fork of ETH on Day 1, since there are a number of technical aspects that must be evaluated to ensure that it is safe for users, the main one is to ensure that the new chain is safe.
In the same way, Josef Tetek, Bitcoin analyst at Trezor, said that “Trezor Suite will not support interaction with pre-merger proof-of-work coins after the upgrade, but users can still use their Trezor wallet with a third-party interface like MetaMask to access the older version of the blockchain.”
Tangem, a Swiss cryptocurrency wallet provider, also has no plans to support the PoW fork. “Until we are sure of the seriousness of the proponents of this hard fork, we are not ready to show our customers’ support for the project,” stated CTO Andrey Lazutkin.
ETH holders using non-custodial wallets and controlling their own private keys will have quick access to both sets of coins (ETHW and ETH). Private key owners can collect the forked coins using Metamask to connect the PoW network to an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) wallet.
Cryptocurrency wallet companies are also warning users to take extra precautions during and after the network upgrade. “Scammers are especially active during big network upgrades. Don’t contact anyone who says you need to take urgent action to protect your coins,” Tetek warned.
Clarification: The information and/or opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views or editorial line of Cointelegraph. The information set forth herein should not be taken as financial advice or investment recommendation. All investment and commercial movement involve risks and it is the responsibility of each person to do their due research before making an investment decision.
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