Proposal Summary

Now that the Merge is complete and ETH, a separatist proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain, ETHPoW, forked from Ethereum's Merge, went live on Sept. 15, 2022. We want to get community guidance on prioritizing ETHW as it seems to be the leading hard fork, however there are questions if it will be sustainable long term.

Since we have limited resources, we want to compare two options ETHW vs Aptos, a promising layer 1 blockchain still in testnet phase. We would start planning for Trust Wallet compatibility for day 1 of their main net launch.

What is ETHW?

See their linktree and Twitter for more info and latest info.

From Investopedia:

The EthereumPoW network is a fork of the Ethereum network. In simple terms, a fork changes the functionality of the blockchain network drastically. ** EthereumPoW is born because a small but vocal group of the crypto community believes that the network should stick to the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Many of these are miners, who wish to hold onto their revenue as Ethereum has switched to the proof-of-stake mechanism on September 15. In recent months, prominent crypto miner Chandler Guo and others have campaigned for ETHW, claiming Ethereum 2.0 will drive crypto miners out of work.**

The native token for the EthereumPoW network is ETHW, though this is only supported by some exchanges. Individuals can trade on these exchanges, with the token available for spot trading on exchanges like FTX, ByBit, and BitMart.

The EthereumPoW team released an update to accompany the mainnet launch, informing readers of some changes and fixes. Since the launch, there have been over 1.7 billion transactions. The total number of addresses holding ETHW now stands at over 254 million.

Projects Taking to ETHPoW Network

In the short time since the launch of the EthereumPoW network, several projects have begun supporting the ecosystem. These include many decentralized wallets, decentralized exchanges, and other Web3 platforms. A few examples are Uniswap V3, MetaMask, and DefiEdge.

Mining pools, which have switched to other networks following Ethereum's transition to a proof-of-stake, have also begun mining ETHW. F2pool and others have begun diverting resources to the token, with the mining pool making up 41.7% of the known hash rate. Woolypooly has 21.5% of the block distribution, followed by 2miners at 14.1%.

Nearly a dozen exchanges support ETHW at the moment, with FTX having the highest volume of $47 million over the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Coinbase has confirmed that it would consider listing forked Ethereum. More exchanges are expected to support the project in the coming days.

How does the ETHW airdrop work?

From ETHW’s medium:

It is actually not an airdrop. With the ETHW hard fork, all addresses that have ETH on the Ethereum network, will have the equivalent number of ETHW on the EthereumPoW network. Remember in the old DeFi Summer days, you can simply switch to a new network by adding its RPC info? So just wait for the mainnet, your ETHW will show up once you add ETHW RPC to your wallet, as long as your wallet has ETH at the time of the fork.

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What Is Aptos?

From : https://learn.bybit.com/altcoins/what-is-aptos/

Aptos is a proposed Layer 1 blockchain that uses the Move programming language. The cryptocurrency promises users increased scalability, reliability, security and usability.

Aptos is still in the very early stages of planning. It hasn’t generated any Aptos coins yet or published an official white paper. However, crypto experts are already beginning to discuss the Aptos blockchain, and it's raised millions of dollars from investors. Aptos will be a Layer 1 blockchain built with a Rust-based programming language called Move. Planned features include a parallel execution engine, high-level security features and low transaction costs.

The Aptos blockchain is generating all this hype because of its intriguing past. The blockchain is based on the Diem blockchain initiative (from Meta) that was recently abandoned. The Aptos crypto is being created by Diem developers, and will use the programming language originally created for Diem. It will still focus on Diem's original goals of creating a scalable, fast blockchain. In addition, it hopes to offer additional features that will make the crypto more accessible to average users.

Who Is Aptos Labs?

Aptos Labs is the team behind the Aptos project. They currently lead a diverse team of developers, engineers and strategists headed by co-founders Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching.

Shaikh and Ching met when they worked together on the Diem blockchain project at Meta. Shaikh specializes in scaling products, and has experience in the private equity and venture capital markets. Meanwhile, Ching was one of the principal software engineers at Meta and has led many exciting and innovative development projects in the past. When Meta chose to discontinue the Diem project, Shaikh and Ching decided to join together to create Aptos Labs.

Aptos Labs’ motto is "Building a Layer 1 for everyone." The company is dedicated to creating the safest, most-reliable network possible. Though they've been around only a short time, their mission has already gained a lot of support. In two financing rounds, Aptos Labs has managed to raiseover $350 million in funding, launched its developer testnet, and successfully handled millions of transactions and thousands of nodes.

How Does the Aptos Blockchain Work?

Though it's not fully operational yet, the Aptos blockchain is already hitting impressive targets. Currently, it can process 130,000 transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining security and reliability. A few revolutionary concepts are at work behind Aptos' impressive performance.

Binance investment in Aptos

From Binance Blog

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and accelerator of Binance, has made a strategic investment in Aptos Labs, a next-generation layer-1 blockchain built with safety and user experience in mind. This is a   follow-on investment that comes after the first round of funding announced in March this year and further expands Binance Labs’ commitment to infrastructure building.

Yi He, Co-Founder of Binance and Head of Binance Labs, said: "We’re excited to be working closely with the Aptos team. At Binance, we’ve always believed in the power of blockchain technology to benefit the masses, just like the Internet. However, infrastructure building remains a bottleneck within the industry. We believe that the technological competitiveness of the Aptos team could bring increased scalability to the blockchain infrastructure while also supporting novel use cases for Web3."

To continue building a secure and scalable blockchain, Aptos will use the funds raised to expand the team and support the development of its innovative layer-1 infrastructure. The team will also build out ecosystem initiatives and tooling to further grow the Aptos community.

Trade-off for Trust Wallet Users

If Trust Wallet does not build support for ETHW, the team will work on adding Aptos test net support as well as main net when it launches. Note, if we do not support ETHW, users could still use another ETHW compatible wallet to access their ETHW.

If users would prefer the ability to view ETHW balance in Trust Wallet following the fork, Aptos support could be delayed.

Additional Resources:

• Aptos Website
• Decrypt coverage on ETHW launch