Consulting giants Deloitte and EY pay close attention to Ethereum hard fork, calling it a lesson in the history of blockchain development

Recently, Ethereum’s hard fork incident has not only caused a stir in the cryptocurrency community and major social networking sites, but some large companies have also viewed it as a lesson in creating private chains.

Major consulting firms have said their corporate clients are curious about Ethereum's hard fork decision. Blockchain experts at consulting firms such as CapGemini, Deloitte, and E&Y are quietly observing the fast-growing open source blockchain space.

Iliana Oris Valiente, a blockchain expert at Deloitte, said: Ethereum hard fork is the focus of the crypto community.

However, due to the special architecture of private chains, she believes that this situation will not happen in private chain systems, but Ethereum's hard fork can indeed bring some inspiration to the development of private chains.

Since the Ethereum hard fork, there has been a steady stream of clients coming to consult us, especially those who have invested in Ethereum projects. They ask, "Does DAO have an impact on our projects on Ethereum?" and "Is Ethereum still trustworthy?"

Angus Champion de Crespigny, blockchain leader at EY, said clients are more curious than concerned about ethereum forks.

He told clients that they should never blindly trust public chain projects. But at the same time, some well-known public chain projects will lay the foundation for the development of blockchain technology.

As for what happens on the public chain, customers just join in the fun and don’t worry about it.

In general, most people believe that the failure of DAO and the subsequent hard fork remind us that the blockchain system is still in its early stages of development. In this new environment, supervision and protection of consumer rights need to be strengthened.

Champion de Crespigny said that the blockchain industry is still in the "teething stage" and that the DAO incident shows that innovators are not down-to-earth enough and are trying to achieve success overnight.

If you wanted to start a social network in 1995, when technology was immature, the Internet was not well developed, and there were no mobile phones, what would you do? You would start with the basics, of course. It is not a bad thing to dampen excessive enthusiasm.

Comprehensive research

In addition, the failure of DAO also shows that comprehensive investigation and research are very important in blockchain systems.

Bart Cant, head of blockchain community at Capgemini, said that the right “tools and capabilities” are the best way to address crisis events.

In the financial services industry, disaster recovery plans are critical. Judging from the DAO attack and its solution, Ethereum was not thoroughly tested beforehand and did not have a backup solution.

Champion de Crespigny said that the DAO incident should serve as a wake-up call for innovators in the blockchain industry, who should think more about the true purpose of blockchain and the basic architecture of the platform.

For example, Bitcoin, which is 7 years old this year, has successfully demonstrated to the world the application capabilities of its blockchain in the field of transactions. Without a certain application foundation, no matter how complex the contract is, it is useless.

This brings me back to the question: Are we over-complicating the blockchain industry?

Gideon Greenspan, CEO of Coin Sciences, a startup that provides consulting services for proof-of-concept projects, also believes that the starting point for blockchain projects should be set low.

In our opinion, for long-term development, blockchain technology should avoid the use of smart contracts as much as possible unless absolutely necessary.

Safe exploration

All interviewees said that their companies are still in the stage of researching and exploring the blockchain industry. The Ethereum hard fork provides them with a valuable research opportunity. Valiente said:

The Ethereum hard fork allows us to explore the application of blockchain from a security perspective.

Champion de Crespigny warned investors that public chain projects are a double-edged sword and that they must be cautious when investing.

I think DAO is an exciting project, but it also comes with a lot of risks...either you make a lot of money or you lose everything.

However, he also mentioned that both successful and failed projects are important to the development of the blockchain industry.

I think it is a good thing to do more experimental projects and we should continue to do so in the future.