Traditionally, cryptocurrency forks have been categorized into a few groups: those done for planned upkeep, Ethereum’s Constantinople upgrade those that occur because of governance disagreements, like the famous Bitcoin blocksize debates, and those that arise as enterprising tweaks, such as DASH deriving heavily from Bitcoin's code. BCH Yet, we are witnessing the rise of an intriguing new breed that blends elements from all these categories: they're called friendly forks.
Enter Alternateth, the latest participant in the crypto ecosystem—it's a proposed sibling network to Ethereum, initiated by developer James Hancock with support from private backers.
In a discussion with CoinDesk, Hancock mentioned that Ethereum must be conservative with changes to remain sound money, explaining that Alternateth would function as a next-level testing ground for Ethereum—much like Litecoin serves Bitcoin.
With Ethereum already boasting several testnets like Goerli, Rinkeby, Ropsten, and Kovan, Hancock envisions Alternateth as more than just another test environment.
Interestingly, Hancock plans no immediate token offering, yet he suggests that the consensus algorithm will be trialed on Alternateth from its inception—a move that precedes any such transition by Ethereum, which has been contemplating ProgPOW for some time.
Additionally, Hancock stated that a portion of every Alternateth block would be dedicated to supporting developers, mirroring the way Ethereum's community has been exploring block rewards. ASIC-resistant ProgPOW We await to see the Ethereum ecosystem's reception to Alternateth, anticipated to make its appearance in August 2019.
A Polkadot Network-hosted Ethereum copy has already encouraged Ethereum and its champions to engage in a bit of self-reflection, which has not been universally comfortable. racking their heads over in recent times.
Alternateth is paving the way following Ycash, a 'Friendly Fork' emerging from Zcash. Dothereum Ycash is shaping up, set to diverge from Zcash’s privacy-focused chain on July 18th, 2019.
This split, while independent of its parent Zcash’s developers, is being championed by Howard Loo, the CEO of SwayLaw and founder of the Ycash Foundation.
Back in April, Ycash was announced as a friendly fork In the announcement, Loo emphasized that Ycash would prioritize commodity hardware mining and curbing the Zcash Founders Reward—a significant portion currently going to developers—to 2.1 million coins.
He expressed that both mining on standard hardware and adhering to pledged limits on the Founders Reward are vital for an equitable distribution of coins, which he argues is essential for widespread acceptance.
As Ycash makes its amicable entry into the scene, some confusion has led parts of the crypto community to suspect a coordinated effort between Zcash and Ycash. Zcash’s co-founder, Zooko Wilcox-O-Hearn, clarified this week that neither he nor his colleagues are involved in the new venture and, like many others in observance, he welcomes the friendly project with enthusiasm.
Although I'm personally enthusiastic about the friendly fork concept,
It’s worth noting that Ycash's founder, Howard Loo, has been a longstanding member of the Zcash community and consistently appears to act with authenticity and rationality.
On another note, Tezos is potentially staring down a much less pleasant fork. https://t.co/w1OaSl8tEX Rumor has it that engineering firm OcamlPro is mulling over the idea of forking Tezos (XTZ) to create a new initiative known as the Dune Protocol, spurred by disagreements over funding.
— zooko❤ⓩ???????????????? (@zooko) June 18, 2019
Not Everything’s So Friendly
Whether this protocol will eventuate remains uncertain, though the mere suggestion has stirred some unrest within the Tezos community, with the XTZ value, trailing at $1.15 USD, dropping six percent over the week.
This week, the Tezos Commons Foundation William M. Peaster, who specializes in exploring the cryptoeconomy focused on Ethereum, Dai, and Bitcoin, is a professional writer and editor. His work has featured in Blockonomi, Binance Academy, Bitsonline, and elsewhere. He takes joy in delving into smart contracts, DAOs, various dApps, and the Lightning Network, and is even dabbling in learning Solidity. You can connect with him on Telegram at @wmpeaster.
Ethereum's (ETH) staking momentum shows no signs of slowing down, but some analysts believe that BinoFi ($BINO) might surpass its gains by 2025.
