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You’re describing a hard fork - exactly what created Ethereum and Ethereum Classic after the DAO hack. Even now it’s still considered a controversial move.

gonehome 5y ago
I think the majority sided with the move (which is why Ethereum soldiers on and EC is basically useless). It's a good final social check on bad behavior. I think Vitalik as written about this (I'm pretty sure I read about it in one of his long form posts).
- ohgodplsno 5y ago
  >I think the majority sided with the move (which is why Ethereum soldiers on and EC is basically useless). Hahaha, no, the wealthy sided with the move. Of the 82,054,716 ETH in existence, only 4,542,416 voted, for a total voter turn out of 5.5% of the total supply on 16 July 2016; 3,964,516 ETH (87%) voted in favor, 1/4 of which came from a single address, and 577,899 ETH (13%) opposed the DAO fork. Vitalik and his friends stood to lose a lot of money, and being the biggest players in town with their premined shitcoin, voted against them losing money.
  - gonehome 5y ago
    The vote is only one part of it. What people continue to use and build on is the other.
- trompetenaccoun 5y ago
  He's also written this, basically warning about something like the very situation now happening 2 months ago: reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/rwojtk/ama_we_are_the_efs_research_team_pt_7_07_january/hrngyk8 The DAO "hack" was a bit different from this, around 14% of all Ether were in that contract. There isn't going to be another rollback, especially not for something like the here discussed attack. Trusting third parties is risky. It's like taking your money out of your bank account and sending it to a bank in Nigeria. Things can go wrong, the chain can't be rolled back every time someone loses money. People have to be more careful.
  - gonehome 5y ago
    Yeah, this is my take of things too at least as I understand it. There is increased risk moving stuff off chain to third parties.
- stickfigure 5y ago
  > I think the majority sided with the move (which is why Ethereum soldiers on and EC is basically useless). This should really be phrased "which is why the fork is called Ethereum and the original chain is called Ethereum Classic". And the majority (of what?) really had only indirect input - the exchanges decided which chain would get which ticker, and if they'd kept ETH=the original chain, it would still have the name Ethereum.
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 5y ago
  Forking is absolutely central to cryptocurrency. In the end, these are just rule schemes for interacting and communicating about value. If no one chooses to participate in it, it has no value. If a sufficient majority would like the rules to change, then they can simply do so. People focus on the algorithmic aspect of cryptocurrencies, but this is simply the weedy details that enable certain properties of interaction. Nothing terribly interesting has happened here since the initial idea of using proof of work to regulate authorship of a blockchain. It is the social aspect that has been interesting to follow. Alt coins, forks, and the enduring primacy of Bitcoin.
hotpotamus 5y ago
So if they fork the chain again, does Ethereum Classic become Ethereum Classic Classic?

gonehome 5y ago

I think the majority sided with the move (which is why Ethereum soldiers on and EC is basically useless). It's a good final social check on bad behavior. I think Vitalik as written about this (I'm pretty sure I read about it in one of his long form posts).

ohgodplsno 5y ago
>I think the majority sided with the move (which is why Ethereum soldiers on and EC is basically useless). Hahaha, no, the wealthy sided with the move. Of the 82,054,716 ETH in existence, only 4,542,416 voted, for a total voter turn out of 5.5% of the total supply on 16 July 2016; 3,964,516 ETH (87%) voted in favor, 1/4 of which came from a single address, and 577,899 ETH (13%) opposed the DAO fork. Vitalik and his friends stood to lose a lot of money, and being the biggest players in town with their premined shitcoin, voted against them losing money.
- gonehome 5y ago
  The vote is only one part of it. What people continue to use and build on is the other.
trompetenaccoun 5y ago
He's also written this, basically warning about something like the very situation now happening 2 months ago: reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/rwojtk/ama_we_are_the_efs_research_team_pt_7_07_january/hrngyk8 The DAO "hack" was a bit different from this, around 14% of all Ether were in that contract. There isn't going to be another rollback, especially not for something like the here discussed attack. Trusting third parties is risky. It's like taking your money out of your bank account and sending it to a bank in Nigeria. Things can go wrong, the chain can't be rolled back every time someone loses money. People have to be more careful.
- gonehome 5y ago
  Yeah, this is my take of things too at least as I understand it. There is increased risk moving stuff off chain to third parties.
stickfigure 5y ago
> I think the majority sided with the move (which is why Ethereum soldiers on and EC is basically useless). This should really be phrased "which is why the fork is called Ethereum and the original chain is called Ethereum Classic". And the majority (of what?) really had only indirect input - the exchanges decided which chain would get which ticker, and if they'd kept ETH=the original chain, it would still have the name Ethereum.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 5y ago
Forking is absolutely central to cryptocurrency. In the end, these are just rule schemes for interacting and communicating about value. If no one chooses to participate in it, it has no value. If a sufficient majority would like the rules to change, then they can simply do so. People focus on the algorithmic aspect of cryptocurrencies, but this is simply the weedy details that enable certain properties of interaction. Nothing terribly interesting has happened here since the initial idea of using proof of work to regulate authorship of a blockchain. It is the social aspect that has been interesting to follow. Alt coins, forks, and the enduring primacy of Bitcoin.

hotpotamus 5y ago

So if they fork the chain again, does Ethereum Classic become Ethereum Classic Classic?