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\u201cIt\u2019s important to remember that initially, the\u00a0Beacon Chain\u00a0shipped separately from\u00a0Mainnet. Ethereum Mainnet \u2013 with all it\u2019s accounts, balances, smart contracts, and blockchain state \u2013 continues to be secured by\u00a0proof-of-work, even while the Beacon Chain runs in parallel using\u00a0proof-of-stake. The approaching Merge is when these two systems finally come together, and proof-of-work is replaced permanently by proof-of-stake.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s consider an analogy. Imagine Ethereum is a spaceship that isn\u2019t quite ready for an interstellar voyage. With the Beacon Chain, the community has built a new engine and a hardened hull. After significant testing, it\u2019s almost time to hot-swap the new engine for the old mid-flight. This will merge the new, more efficient engine into the existing ship, ready to put in some serious lightyears and take on the universe.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n On Augus 5, CoinDesk reported that TRON founder had recently said that \u201che will support development on the existing Ethereum network following the expected merge in September.\u201d<\/p>\n The CoinDesk report went on to say:<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopers say the move away from a proof-of-work (PoW) system will make the network much cheaper, faster and environmentally friendly. It will also mean the end of an income stream for Ethereum miners, who are rewarded with ether (ETH) tokens for supplying resources to the blockchain. Miners produced over $620 million worth of ether in July alone,\u00a0data show, making The Merge akin to a death knell for a significant chunk of cash.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat has prompted some prominent Chinese miners to propose a hard fork, so even as Ethereum undergoes The Merge and becomes validated by stakers, the miners will continue to support a newly separated PoW version of the chain \u2013 a move that could theoretically keep their financial activity intact.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n On the same day, Cointelegraph reported that \u201cspeaking at the BUIDL Asia event in Korea, Vitalik Buterin said that centralized stablecoins like USDC & USDT will become significant deciders in future hard forks\u201d (and that \u201chad not seen any indication\u201d that this would impact the Merge hard fork (which is expected to take place next month).<\/p>\n Anyway, yesterday \u201cHasu\u201d took to Twitter to talk about this alleged attempt by some miners to create a new fork of Ethereum that uses PoW consensus:<\/p>\n He went on to say:<\/p>\n \u201ca lot of hashpower does not give this chain any significant value\u2026 the chance that a major stablecoin will honor redemptions on this fork over eth2 is not 5%, its not 1%, its a cold zero. anyone who says otherwise is a grifter\u2026 if anything goes wrong with the merge, it just gets delayed until the problems are fixed and then the merge happens a few weeks later\u2026 no one in the eth community apart from miners want to stay on proof of work\u2026 this fork chain will be a giant retail trap. miners, exchanges, traders are all trying to talk it up for their own self-interested reasons\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n