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Woohoo!!! If you do anything in crypto at all, then you will have heard that the Ethereum Merge is now definitely scheduled and is likely to occur in mid-September of this year. Ethereum main-net will merge with the Proof of Stake Beacon chain and we are going to start a new chapter in Ethereum's journey.

This is crazily exciting for so many reasons, the move away from energy-intensive proof of work and towards a more scalable vision that will later include sharding in addition to the thriving ecosystem of L2s that are already in operation.

Of course, there are groups that will be notably opposed to the Merge. Proof of Work Miners in particular are the ones who are most directly affected, as their hardware becomes useless overnight for the Ethereum ecosystem. So, it was wasn't surprising that there was talk of forking the chain and having the Proof of Work version continue onwards...

... however, with the core developers lining up behind proof of stake, and the vast majority of dApps and especially DeFi protocols also doing the same, it is likely that PoW Eth will be dead on arrival... or at best, a ghost chain.

Mostly notably, it appears that the all-critical stablecoin issuers are likely to land behind Proof of Stake, which would completely gut any hopes of a functioning initial DeFi ecosystem on the Proof of Work fork. There would be nothing backing the stablecoin tokens... essentially making them have an intrinsic worth of zero. Likewise for all the other project that will jump to Proof of Stake... all their Proof of Work duplicates will not be honoured or recognised by exchanges or other chains. So... again, essentially zero.

The only thing that will be worth anything at all at the time of the forking will be ETHPOW... and that might spike in price briefly as everything else will be dumped and liquidated for the only thing that has any possibility of having a non-zero price. All of this will play out with bots and high gas fees in the first couple of blocks... so, if you are a human... don't play this game, you will be the exit liquidity.

Despite the fact that ETHPOW is likely to be a ghost chain... there has been "interesting shows support" from the usual suspects. I doubt that they actually think that it is anything more than a chance to dump on people who will be lured in by false promises and the greedy desire to make a quick buck.

So, what am I planning to do... I'm not a bot herder, so I'm staying out of that mess at the start. But more to the point, I REALLY want to hang a long way back... as I'm mostly scared of replay attacks. This is where a transaction that is broadcast on one network, is replayed on the other network... I want to make sure that this is all sorted and fixed before I even dare touch anything on either chain. I am happy to give up the chance to dump ETHPOW quickly in favour of ETHPOS... I will just hold tight, and let the devs and protocols settle everything down... and wait for the more greedy and foolhardy to test the waters for traps...

... and when I'm feeling safe and ready, then I might just make a move.

But mostly, informing all of this... in the greediness of "forks"... many people see the chance to double their money in a swift and quick move... the fork airdrop, like Bitcoin Cash and all of that mania from that earlier time. I see it as holding exactly the same... ETHPOS, which is what I had before.... and I prefer to play defensively, I want to hold that ETHPOS and not risk it by playing funny games with ETHPOW/ETHPOS trades before everything is bedded down, safe, and ready.

Sure, that means I don't get to "double" my money... but more important to me, is the boring idea that I don't lose everything in a short-sighted cash grab.

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!