A subordinate of the Coinbase squad had to remark connected the ETHPoW GitHub repository to get the squad to clarify however the forked concatenation volition beryllium acceptable up. Currently, the repository has not updated the ChainID of the web to 1 that differs from Ethereum Mainnet.
We've reached the constituent successful the ETHPoW saga wherever the Coinbase protocol squad themselves are submitting PRs to the repo to get the chainID contented solved.
And inactive nary effect from the team. pic.twitter.com/AhQ3FFWEm4
— frankie (@FrankieIsLost) September 9, 2022
The ETHPoW Testnet uses the ChainID 10002, unused by immoderate different chain. Ethereum Mainnet has a ChainID of 1, and plentifulness of different numbers are available to the PoW chain.
Coinbase was not the lone squad attempting to resoluteness this issue. Four different propulsion requests are requesting the developers update the ChainID.
The ETHPoW squad responded to Coinbase’s propulsion petition connected Sept. 9 and said:
“The chainid for ethw is 10001, which we volition people connected our Twitter account. The codification you mentioned successful the supra comments has to support due to the fact that chainID 1 is needed to validate concatenation information for blocks earlier the merge, and each concatenation information aft the merge volition beryllium chainID 10001.”
This quality volition calm the nerves of galore wrong the Ethereum ecosystem successful the cognition that determination does not look to person been malicious intent successful not updating the ChainID.
Ethereum PoW and wherefore it matters
A proof-of-work hard fork of Ethereum post-merge has been theorized respective times implicit the past fewer weeks. Justin Sun, the laminitis of Poloniex, announced the speech would enactment a hard fork of Ethereum by donating up to 1 cardinal $ETHPoW to gathering a developer assemblage connected the caller chain.
However, overmuch has been misunderstood astir The Merge and the determination to proof-of-stake. The main Ethereum chain, known arsenic Mainnet, volition proceed to tally passim The Merge, with a caller statement furniture called the Beacon Chain being merged into the existing network.
A trouble weaponry volition beryllium applied, making mining connected Mainnet pointless arsenic it volition beryllium excessively hard to excavation caller blocks. Yet, that doesn’t mean miners person to halt mining. Miners tin excavation the upgraded proof-of-stake mentation of Ethereum, but they volition beryllium incapable to person immoderate rewards oregon lend importantly to artifact production.
For a proof-of-work mentation of Ethereum, miners volition either person to revert to mining Ethereum Classic, which has a overmuch smaller ecosystem and lacks immoderate of the important dApps recovered connected Ethereum Mainnet oregon make a hard fork of the existent Mainnet without the Beacon concatenation merge.
A caller hard fork that retains the proof-of-work statement method tin hap anytime. Anyone tin fork Ethereum from GitHub astatine immoderate time. There has been immoderate disorder astir The Merge, with immoderate radical believing a proof-of-work mentation of Ethereum volition continue, and the proof-of-stake mentation volition beryllium the fork.
Confusion for ETH users
Most of this disorder stems from the Ethereum Foundation’s archetypal connection of The Merge, which is referred to arsenic ETH 2.0. This connection has since been dropped to assistance users recognize that nary enactment needs to beryllium taken by users with Ethereum successful their non-custodial wallets.
Should users privation to enactment successful a hard fork of Ethereum, they volition person to adhd a caller concatenation to their wallets successful a akin mode you adhd Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, oregon BNB Chain.
All of these chains are EVM compatible, meaning they stock overmuch of the aforesaid codification arsenic Ethereum Mainnet and a afloat interoperable with the aforesaid nationalist code being utilized crossed each chains.
A caller ETHPoW concatenation volition beryllium akin to adding different EVM-compatible concatenation but with each the assets, astute contracts, and tokens being duplicated from Mainnet.
The quality betwixt ETH and ETHPoW
One of the simplest ways to differentiate betwixt Ethereum Mainnet and ETHPoW volition beryllium to usage the ChainID. A ChainID is simply a fig that identifies the concatenation to dApps and astute contracts truthful that they cognize which web they are interacting with.
However, the existent GitHub repository that contains the ETHPoW codification inactive has the aforesaid ChainID arsenic Ethereum Mainnet. Without a alteration to this ChainID, dApps and astute contracts volition beryllium incapable to admit the ETHPoW chain, arsenic immoderate transactions volition apt neglect owed to a deficiency of statement from validators utilizing this ChainID.
A further interest is simply a anticipation of “replay attacks” whereby transactions are replayed crossed some chains opening up superior information concerns.
Now that the ChainID is confirmed to beryllium 10001, users tin hole wallets erstwhile a suitable RPC code is released to person ETHPoW airdrops.
The station ETHPoW squad confirms it volition usage ChainID 10001 to debar replay attacks connected Mainnet appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.