Soon after the Ethereum Merge was successfully executed, the Ethereum proof-of-work chain went live with its mainnet. However, ETHPoW didn’t have a smooth start, unlike its PoS counterpart.
The proof-of-work chain is intended to preserve the forked version of the Ethereum chain.
Soon after the mainnet went live, users faced difficulty in accessing the network. The ETHPoW website server had to be shut down due to heightened activity. What’s more, users were complaining that they were not able to add the ETHPoW chain to their metamask wallet. Soon, it became evident that ETHPoW used a Chain ID that was already in use, leading to the error.
Chain IDs act as a fingerprint of the blockchain and allow networks to confirm and identify on-chain assets. As there is no central registry for the creation of Chain IDs, they are created arbitrarily.
Market panicked on worries about a replay attack if developers failed to create a new Chain ID different from that of the Ethereum mainnet. In replay attacks, scammers can replicate a transaction in both chains, if both networks possess the same chain ID.
Before the ETHPoW mainnet launch, its native token ETHW had surged to a high of $60.68. But soon after it went live, users dumped the coin over issues in the chain, resulting in a drop of over 70%. Currently, it is trading at a $12.92, touching a low of $9.29.
