There are different activities happening in the crypto community, and it keeps getting interesting by the day. Away from the stories about Facebook’s Libra and Bitcoin hitting the $9600 mark, something interesting is about to happen in the Ethereum community. A recent development indicates that a member of the Ethereum community is making plans to begin what is referred to as a “friendly fork’ of the popular Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum News
This friendly fork is named “Alternateth”, and according to the project team lead at ETHSignals, James Hancock, he is hopeful that this fork will function as a supporting chain to Ethereum, and it will be used to validate ideas, as well as proof-of-concepts, before they get adopted on the main chain. The split is intended to start in August. Furthermore, Hancock said that for Ethereum to remain relevant regardless of the competition, then the blockchain network needs to continue making changes to the network, while also being conservative about making the changes.
If measured by market capitalization, Ethereum comes as the second largest blockchain network in the world. Since inception, the Ethereum blockchain network has witnessed the birth of different smart contract systems that are also competitors, including IOST, Tron, EOS, etc. Interestingly, none of the competitors has been able to come near Ethereum’s value. A lot of new technologies have been created with the Ethereum blockchain as the underlying technology, and the quest for a better Ethereum platform has made it necessary for the developers to come up with measures that will ensure the network does not lose its competitive edge.
Ethereum Potential
According to Hancock, his perception of Alternateth is like a test network that will increase the speed at which development happens on the Ethereum mainnet. One of the features that will get executed first on Alternateth is the network’s mining algorithm which is the Progressive Proof-of-Work (ProgPoW). This algorithm switch has been approved for activation on mainnet since January, but has yet to be activated. Furthermore, beyond the borders of testing Alternateth, Hancock has expressed optimism that Alternateth will function as a blockchain with features that can help Ethereum developers.
At the moment, Hancock is trying to get support for the new fork from other blockchain developers. Hancock explained about the miner support, and said there are some miners on the Ethereum whose mining are general purpose, and they are prepared to mine the new ProgPoW mining algorithm.
The project is in its early stages of development, and Hancock says he’s getting support privately on how to go about the execution of the fork, he says they are not working on the project, but are supporting him. Furthermore, he added that he would allow the developers do the job of announcing their involvement in the project.
There are indications that if this project pulls through, then it could be a good thing for the Ethereum blockchain network, as they could work effectively at ensuring that the blockchain network becomes better, both for the team and for the users of the Ethereum blockchain network.
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