Hugely successful Ethereum miner Chandler Guo is now the face of the EthereumPoW movement.
The rise of EthereumPoW (ETHW) kicked off what is arguably the biggest Blockchain war since 2017, when Bitcoin split into three competing versions.
In the early days of this new Blockchain battlefront, Chandler Guo, the former Ethereum miner and ICO investor that has become the face of EthereumPoW, came out of retirement to lead the upstart chain. However, Guo had more than that in mind.
Why Chandler Guo Took on ETHW
One of the curious things about Guo’s involvement in EthereumPoW (ETHW) is that he is no longer a miner himself. Despite this, it has become a major focal point of Ethereum’s proof of work. It is interesting to know how Guo, now retired, came to become an important figure in the movement. Guo says:
“At first I didn’t care about the merger thing, but when more and more mining companies came to me and asked for help… I wanted to help them and keep them alive.”
Even then, Guo was surprised at how quickly things took off. Shortly after expressing his interest in ETHW, the businessman took a short fishing vacation in Moscow to reflect. During that time, EthereumPoW started to gain a lot of momentum.
Guo went on to say that, “Seven days without internet and no signal, I was thinking a lot. I thought, ‘maybe I should do something.’ But by the time the ride was over and he was finally back online, “the price had already gone up to $12, double the price, and the developers already had more than 15,” leaving Guo simply exclaiming, “Wow, this is crazy!”
At that moment, Guo decided that he was inside. Having gone from indifference to acceptance, and suddenly overwhelmed, in a matter of weeks, Guo is now more grounded and philosophical about his involvement with ETHW, which has meant the end of his early retirement.
“Man, I’ve been retired for a long time. In 2017 I did the investment banking business, helping the ICO projects. I’ve been retired for a long time, but you always want to do something, right? So I think [ETHW] is a good thing,” he says.
Guo’s Controversy Regarding Vitalik Buterin and PoW
A recurring theme is Vitalik Buterin and his relationship with the Proof-Of-Work mining community. One area of disagreement between Guo and Buterin was the existing Ethereum Classic (ETC) Proof-Of-Work (PoW) chain, which Ethereum’s founder saw as a “good” PoW alternative to Proof-Of-Stake (PoS). Ethereum.
“Vitalik is not happy,” says Guo. “He suggested to me that all miners should go to ETC, but ETC doesn’t have an ecosystem,” he says before concluding, “It’s not good enough.”
As Guo sees it, the miners felt as if the Merger forced them to do so, and the creation of a new Ethereum PoW chain was almost inevitable.
“So the miners are a little bit upset about that, so almost all of them went to the ETHW. Twenty mining pools and 5,000 miners. I think Vitalik helped me push this forward and push miners towards ETHW.”
Buterin Needs to “Shut Up”
According to Guo, who says he “helped [Buterin] a lot” and was once “the biggest ETH miner,” the die is now cast and the time for talking has come to an end.
“Keep quiet,” is Guo’s message. “Just let me do my job. Keep your mouth shut.”
By Audy Castaneda
