The co-founder of a prominent crypto data aggregator is predicting the emergence of new Ethereum () hard forks as the leading smart contract platform gears up for its much-anticipated upgrade.
CoinGecko executive Bobby Ong says Ethereum’s current miners are motivated to create a new proof-of-work (PoW) version of ETH once the king altcoin transitions to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which is scheduled to in about a week.
“Ethereum is going through an upgrade where it will transition from proof of work to proof of stake. After the transition, ETH miners can no longer mine. Miners are forking ETH to keep a PoW version so they can continue mining.”
According to Ong, the new ETH PoW forks will likely airdrop tokens to current Ethereum holders.
“The Ethereum Merge is scheduled to take place on 13th September. Christmas season is here again. ETH holders will soon be airdropped ETH PoW tokens.”
Ong also says that based on Bitcoin’s () history of hard forks, it is within the realm of possibility that more than one ETH PoW fork could pop up.
“We have about [six] days to go to the Merge. I think many markets and protocols will get volatile, messy, and complex especially in the hours before/after Merge. One or more ETH PoW forks may show up. Dug up our old 2017 crypto report on Bitcoin forks and found this.”
The CoinGecko co-founder highlights that he doesn’t plan on holding any ETH PoW tokens that he receives.
“My strategy for these fork tokens is to sell them all immediately. Almost all the fork tokens are now dead as they are created solely to keep miners temporarily occupied with mining and have no incentive to grow their community and usage.”
He also says that amid the noise and volatility leading up to the merge, Ethereum traders may find a short-term opportunity.
“Buy the rumor, sell the fact… ETH will probably be bought up in the hours to the Merge and dumped immediately after. You can choose to sell ETH and take profit then.”
At time of writing, Ethereum is changing hands for $1,536, down over 7% on the day.
