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3 1336 Ethereum successfully hard forked yesterday. This update of the Ethereum protocol was in full compliance with the opinions of the community. Users have already started using the new blockchain. As of press time, 90% of the network's computing power has successfully completed the update. The cause of this fork stems from the DAO theft case a month ago. The attacker exploited a contract vulnerability to steal a large number of DAO tokens. In order to recover the losses of investors, the development team executed a hard fork after consulting the community. The hard fork resolution also brought a new branch to the community - Ethereum Classic. Ethereum Classic refused to update to the hard fork and is still using the old blockchain. The purpose of the project is to "continue a censorship-free Ethereum" and "provide options for those who oppose hard forks." Many people think that Ethereum Classic is a hoax, but in fact the project has attracted some people's attention. It already has a small number of users on Reddit and Slack. Bitsquare has even begun to provide trading services for its token, classic ether . In addition, in order to mine Ethereum Classic blocks and ensure the smooth development of the project, 0.5% of the total network computing power joined the Ethereum Classic mining pool long before the hard fork. The head of the Ethereum Classic project calls himself arvicco . This is a pseudonym because he lives in Russia, and it is well known that the Russian government does not like cryptocurrencies. Arvicco is also the founder of the cryptocurrency information website BitNovosti.com. BitNovosti.com is the largest cryptocurrency media in Russia, including a news website, YouTube channel, film production channel, etc. (This is the personal homepage of arvicco found by the translator on Github) Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Arvicco to learn more about Ethereum Classic’s developments. Q: Arvicco, are you a "troll"? (The original text uses the word "troll", which roughly means to deliberately make some inflammatory and provocative remarks to anger others or prompt them to make the emotional response they want. After thinking for a long time, it should be similar to what we call trolls in China) No. Although I like to express my opinions, I am definitely not a troll.
Q: Are you the DAO attacker? Of course not. I never even spoke to him or them, we had absolutely no interaction at all.
Q: Why do you want to continue the original version of the Ethereum blockchain? Doesn’t this create opportunities for attackers? First of all, I want to say that I am not alone. This project was formed spontaneously on the Russian forum; the initiators may be some miners, users and developers who are active in the community and are familiar with crypto technology. We just think that it is not enough to have an idea, we must take action. Now you can see that the participants of this project are not limited to Russia, but also Ethereum enthusiasts from all over the world. We all have our own strengths, and we are confident that we can complete the transition from Ethereum to Ethereum Classic. Take me for example, I am good at communication, so my exposure rate is relatively high, and I usually do interviews or speeches. As for why we let the DAO attackers go… This is an interesting question. The Bitcoin community has also been arguing over similar issues. We know some black market transaction addresses, such as Silk Road, so why not just blacklist them? Why didn’t we prevent attacks like the Mt. Gox incident? Because we believe in decentralization. We believe that blockchain systems have three major elements:公开、中立以及不可更改. These three elements are the key to building the value of the Ethereum platform. Once these three characteristics are separated, the blockchain is nothing more than a glorified database. Moreover, such a database is worthless from both a social and technical perspective. The Ethereum Foundation was short-sighted and thought that helping investors recover their losses would build more trust in the platform. But the opposite is true. Retrieving DAO funds has violated two of the three elements.
Q: Many people say that DAO is an exception, and Ethereum is still very young. As long as it is guaranteed to be a one-time event, why can't the losses be recovered through a hard fork? Haha, they are so naive that they believe that "this won't happen again". In order to achieve their own goals, they think it's okay to slightly violate the development values of Ethereum. But they are wrong, very wrong. There are two extremes in blockchain: either it is neutral, uncensorable, and unchangeable, or it is the exact opposite. It is either black or white, and there is no gray area at all. You can't say, I promise to censor at the beginning, and then when investors suffer losses, I will be another face. Can you get pregnant for a while? Once this precedent is set, there will definitely be a second and third time. The next time there is a vulnerability in the smart contract, the same thing will happen again. Just like the court system, once the trial method of a case sets a precedent, every similar case will be closed in the same way. How can we ensure that we do not cross the line when the time comes?
Q: Ethereum is a consensus protocol. As long as users reach a consensus and decide to modify the protocol, why can't they change it? Aren't the boundaries set by users? In fact, nearly 20%到40% of the Ethereum community disagree with the hard fork. So, I don’t deny that most people are in favor of hard forks. But this kind of democracy is problematic. Voters are easily influenced by subjective factors. This kind of democracy also ignores the interests of a small number of people. The point is, we must not repeat the mistakes of Ethereum and allow this so-called democracy to appear in any blockchain.
Q: But this is the nature of blockchain technology. If 60% to 80% of users reach a consensus, a hard fork is inevitable. Yes, users are free to follow any rules. The Bitcoin community is no exception. They can actually remove the 21 million issuance limit with a simple code, but the only thing stopping this from happening is the community itself. People can choose a community based on their own values. In fact, everyone in the community knows the issuance limit of Bitcoin. It is precisely because of this issuance limit that users are willing to support Bitcoin. What supports them is a social consensus that cannot be easily destroyed. Obviously, the value of Ethereum is not yet so clear. Perhaps the founding team hopes for the inclusiveness of Ethereum. As a result, due to the lack of guiding principles, the community cannot make a clear judgment on the DAO incident. As we wrote on our website: "We believe in decentralized, censorship-resistant public chains. We believe that the initial version of Ethereum is a world computer that cannot be shut down, and the smart contracts running on it are immutable. We believe that forks can only be used to fix platform vulnerabilities, not to save failed contracts and recover personal losses. We believe that censorship-resistant platforms can win trust."
Q: Putting DAO aside, do you think the current values of the Ethereum community have completely deviated? Judging from the current situation, many people in the community have a "get rich quick and regardless of the consequences" mentality. It is because of these people that the price of Ethereum has risen sharply after the fork. But I think this is unfortunate.
Q: Some people have criticized the DAO attackers from a moral perspective and used this as a reason to recover funds. What do you think? They sound so noble! Are they going to take back all the stolen funds on the blockchain? If so, who says that executing code on the chain is theft? Is there a legal basis? Who is the police? Who is the judge? Who is the jury? What is the appeal process? If not, why did only the DAO attackers get special treatment? If the above phenomenon is the so-called "consensus" or "democracy", I cannot agree with it. Sometimes sacrifices must be made to uphold principles. The DAO, a failed experiment and its insecure smart contracts, should have been a casualty of Ethereum’s development, but the opposite was true.
Q: Are you saying that Ethereum users who support hard forks have no principles? I think the Ethereum Foundation has a selfish interest in the DAO. The major investors in the DAO have an inseparable relationship with the Ethereum Foundation. As soon as the DAO attack happened, Stephan Tual (founder of Slock.it) kept preaching the need to save the DAO. This behavior completely violated the original intention of the DAO - Code is Law. Ethereum's original claim to be a smart contract platform that is not affected by human factors has long been forgotten. The problem is, he succeeded because so many Ethereum users and developers invested in the DAO.
Q: Some people also said that they support the fork in order to ensure the normal operation of the Ethereum platform. Because they believe that after the DAO attackers get the funds, they will sell them crazily, lowering the price of Ethereum and causing the currency to collapse. What do you think of this view? The price of any currency reflects the supply and demand of the market. If the attacker actually did this, it would cause a one-time supply shock. In fact, I think there will be a bigger supply shock once classic ether splits (spilt). This is not a big deal. There are many reasons for this, like some people will see this event as an opportunity to accumulate tokens. Because some people think Ethereum Classic has more development potential, or they just want to diversify their investments to reduce risks. It is normal for currency prices to fluctuate, and the market will adjust itself, which also creates opportunities for investors.
Q: If the price drops too much, will the miners’ investment and returns be disproportionate? Ethereum's hashrate difficulty adjustment is quite efficient. Usually after a hard fork, it only takes a few hours or days for the mining difficulty to return to the speed of two blocks per minute. After the hashrate difficulty adjustment, everything will return to normal.
Q: In your opinion, will miners supporting Ethereum and the hard fork attack Ethereum Classic to ensure Ethereum’s dominance? Ethereum Classic does not pose any threat to them at all. In terms of computing power, Ethereum Classic may not be as secure as Ethereum, at least not yet. In this case, even if miners attack Ethereum Classic, it will not be worth the loss, and it is better to directly participate in the mining process of classic ether.
Q: Will the existence of Ethereum Classic threaten the price of Ethereum and Ether? I don’t think so. Someone has thought about splitting Ethereum before. We just made it a reality. Some hard fork supporters say that Ethereum Classic is just an insurance policy bought by Ethereum. If the Ethereum Foundation's approach doesn't work, at least it can leave a way out for itself.
Q: Another question is that Ethereum will completely switch to the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism in the future. If an attacker holds 5% of the ether, will it pose a threat to the system? No matter what the attacker chooses, either entering the PoS system with ether or selling ether, it will not cause any problems. Vitalik Buterin also thinks so.
Q: Will the spilt be done safely? As for whether the hard fork split will be successful, it is still hard to say. The Ethereum Foundation has an "all-star" development team, but the hard fork code is always rushed out and there may be some problems. The split should be done in a concise and clear way. The most worrying thing at present is the "replay attack". After the fork, the attacker can use a smart contract to interact on one chain and then re-do it on another chain. But these problems are not irreversible yet. We are working on solutions and trying to release the simplest response strategy with the least user involvement. The Ethereum Foundation and some external developers are also helping.
Q: You said Ethereum Classic has a strong user base in the crypto community in Russia and its neighboring countries. What about other regions? Speaking of this, I have to mention a major feature of Ethereum Classic. Ethereum Classic is essentially a fork of Ethereum. This means that Ethereum Classic will soon welcome a larger user base: all Ethereum users. Whether users will be attracted to our censorship-resistant chain is their choice. Ethereum Classic also creates arbitrage opportunities for investors. Now that Bitsquare has listed classic ether, I believe we will have a larger market. Soon, all the major Ethereum exchanges - Poloniex, Bitfinex and Kraken - will also list classic ether. In this way, their users will have both ether and classic ether. Once these exchanges see the potential of Ethereum Classic, they will open trading services without hesitation. Of course, all apps that run on Ethereum will also run on Ethereum Classic. That’s pretty much it.
Q: What about developers? So far, Ethereum Classic does not have even a single famous Ethereum developer. Our main goal is to maintain 100% compatibility with the Ethereum platform. We don’t need to worry too much about development, we just need to copy the code from Ethereum and update it. However, if there are Ethereum developers interested in joining our team, we welcome them. Our goal is to build a better future for humanity, allowing the smart contract platform to lay a solid foundation for global social and economic cooperation.
Q: Do you want to replace Ethereum? Or can Ethereum Classic and Ethereum coexist? We are not born for confrontation. Although I do not agree with the Ethereum Foundation's approach to the DAO, I think their decision endangered the long-term value of the platform and made a big mistake. But I still respect the members of the Foundation, and I also value the community and developers. I know that many developers are not optimistic about this hard fork. But they still try to take responsibility and write hard fork code to give the community the opportunity to make their own choice. I want to say to those who are prejudiced that Ethereum Classic is not born to fight against Ethereum. We are also part of the Ethereum ecosystem, and we also hope to contribute to the development of Ethereum. We just represent another Ethereum community, aiming to realize the vision of an open, neutral, and immutable blockchain. We will make the Ethereum ecosystem better and better. We want everyone to know that Ethereum Classic is not a joke. We are real.
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