What to Expect When Ethereum Classic Diffuses Its 'Difficulty Bomb'

Ethereum classic is set to fork in the coming days as part of a bid to diffuse a so-called 'bomb' in its code.

Set for block 5,900,000, the change, in which all users of the original ethereum blockchain will need to update their software, is meant to disable a feature that is designed to increase the difficulty of mining the protocol's rewards ahead of a shift to a new consensus algorithm.

Advocates in the ethereum community argue that proof-of-stake systems are more energy efficient than their proof-of-work counterparts.

Anthony Lusardi, developer and director of ETC Cooperative, a community development and marketing body for the protocol, argues this is yet another point on which the ethereum and ethereum classic communities disagree.

He sought to frame the impending removal of the code as another way the ethereum classic project is attempting to differentiate since the 2017 split.

Ethereum classic's decision to uphold its proof-of-work system was not made in haste.

Discussions started in 2016 after the collapse of the smart contract-based funding project The DAO, which triggered the original splintering of the ethereum and ethereum classic blockchains.

"We didn't know if we were going to move to proof-of-stake or stay with proof-of-work and there were a lot of discussions. We realized we didn't have enough time," Igor Artamonov, CTO of the ethereum classic development team, told CoinDesk.

Major ethereum classic developer and tech company IOHK has also followed suit.

It released its node client Mantis V1.1 three weeks ago with hard fork integration so its users had sufficient time to update, IOHK's ethereum classic community manager, Kevin Lord, told CoinDesk.