- EthereumPOW and Ethereum Classic are both based on the PoW consensus mechanism.
- Due to the longer run of ETH, it has a bigger market cap than ETHW
- The cost of an ETHW coin is less than that of ETH, as it has been just over a year since its inception
Ethereum is a prominent player in the dynamic landscape of blockchain technology. Ethereum functions on a vision of a decentralized world. The smart contracts and decentralized applications of Ethereum have played a pivotal role in revolutionizing and enhancing the technology.
Hard Fork Split and Soft Fork Split
Ethereum, instead of being a single block, is characterized by forks that resulted in the creation of two new Ethereum-based chains. A ‘fork’ basically refers to a split in the protocol in the context of the blockchain world. The split then gives birth to a completely new blockchain that has some resemblance to its predecessor, the original Ethereum but only up to a certain point. This split is recognized in two categories hard and soft forks.
Hard fork splits are the ones that give rise to new blockchains that are radically different from the original one while in the case of soft rock splits, new blockchains have just slight variations from the original ones, keeping the core of the original blockchain intact. Both EthereumPoW and Ethereum Classic are the products of a hard fork split.
Formation of ETHW and ETH and the Difference between them
Both of these cryptocurrencies can be mined, unlike the original Ethereum. The reason is the switch of the consensus mechanism from the PoW (proof-of-work) to the PoS (proof-of-stake) model. Ethereum Classic’s inception happened back in 2015 in the light of a controversial event known as DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). It was formed as a result to keep the immutability intact. The majority of members who supported the DAO in order to confront the theft led to the formation of EthereumPOW recently.
EthereumPoW and Ethereum Classic both serve different purposes. While Ethereum Classic offers an ecosystem for the creation of dApps (decentralized applications) along with an option to mine cryptocurrencies, EthereumPoW facilitates the reward system for the mining process and is rigorously utilized for transactions. ETH (Ethereum Classic) obviously had a longer stay than ETHW (Ethereum PoW).
ETH facilitates far more services than ETHW and has a bigger market cap than ETHW. Both of these cryptocurrencies have a similar foundation, as both of them can be mined and both make use of the PoW consensus mechanism specifically. The cost of an ETHW coin is lower than that of ETH due to its short run since its inception but both of these hard fork slits have similar gas fee costs and network congestion scenarios.
Conclusion
The foundations of both ETHW and ETH are pretty similar, as both of these Etereum-based cryptocurrencies are based on the PoW consensus mechanism; however, ETH is far more likely to facilitate more services like e-commerce than ETHW due to its long stability and immutability. There is no downright clear-cut answer to which of these two blockchains is better but ETH’s reliable commitment to immutability and decentralization might make it more appealing.
