ETHW is a hard fork of the original Ethereum blockchain network, which went live after The Merge. EthereumPoW will continue with the contentious PoW consensus mechanism, while Ethereum will move over to the energy-efficient PoS consensus.
EthereumPoW is a Proof of Work version of Ethereum which is a community driven initiative. As Ethereum transitioned to POS rendering miners and making their equipment’s obsolete a China-based Ethereum miner Chandler Guo proposed an alternative plan. ETHW Core was formed which is a group of independent software developers and miners lead by veteran Chandler Guo. The highly anticipated update to the Ethereum blockchain, The Merge, took place on September 15, 2022. Crypto enthusiasts eagerly looked forward to the shift from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS) consensus.
The snapshot was taken at the Merge block. The exact time at — https://etherscan.io/block/15537393
Everyone who held ETH on Ethereum blockchain before the fork will receive the same amount of ETHW (new PoW blockchain’s native token) after the merge.
You basically have ETHW waiting for you in your address. To claim ETHW you only have to connect your Metamask to ETHPoW network. Then switch to ETHPoW mainnet and you’ll see ETHW in equal amounts to ETH that you had in your ETH address.
Before you connect to the network and access the coins first check whether you have ETHPoW ETHW tokens in your ETH address. How to check your ETHW balances?
Visit ETH PoW explorer and enter your Metamask ETH address or any wallet ETH address where you were holding ETH before the Merge:
Etherscan equivalent for ETHW (ETHPoW): https://www.oklink.com/en/ethw
Ethereum PoW website: https://ethereumethw.org/
Alright! Let’s now see how to connect Metamask to ETH PoW and claim the ETHW coins.
Go to Metamask, drop down Ethereum mainnet and click Add Network. Then add the following ETHPoW mainnet info and click save.
For example if you hold 100 ETH you’ll receive 100 ETHW on ETHPoW chain.
In general, any wallet that supports custom RPC will work.
Here we use Binance as an example
ETHPoW claiming process: If you held ETH on MyEtherWallet, Exodus, Coinbase, Trust Wallet, Coinomi, or Hyper Ledger, then import its private key into MyETHW and connect MyETHW to EthereumPoW to access the coins. Or you can import the particular wallet’s seed phrase on MyETHW wallet. But be very careful when doing this. You should never ever share your private key or recovery phrase with anyone.
If You Haven't Claimed Your ETHW Airdrop Yet, Here's How!
Follow this step-by-step guide to claim ETHW on MyETHW wallet.
Final Thoughts. After importing the ETHW to your wallet, you can:
At the time of writing, ETHW is currently tradable on Poloniex, Gate.io, MEXC, Phemex, DigiFinex and CoinW.
Beware of Fake Ethereum PoW accounts on Twitter and Social Media. Such accounts promote fake giveaway of ETHW tokens. To take part in their “airdrops,” and to claim the tokens you’ll be asked to submit your wallet personal data via Google Forms. Avoid falling for such blatant scams. Never ever share your personal data or wallet data particularly private keys and recovery seed phrase with anyone.
With ETHW initially forking the Ethereum blockchain, the chain would start with the same circulating supply as proof-of-stake Ethereum. However, since the post-Merge Ethereum will have a much lower inflation rate than its current PoW version, the two chains would diverge in their coin supply. If EthereumPoW continues to be mined, its supply will grow at a faster rate than that of Ethereum on PoS.