Ethereum Devs Take a Look at Potential ETH Issuance Reduction

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Ethereum Devs Take a Look at Potential ETH Issuance Reduction

August 24, 2018 by William Peaster

Friday, August 24th, Ethereum Core’s developers hosted a series of guests in, among other things, discussing a possible ether issuance reduction within the Ethereum blockchain’s nigh Constantinople fork update. The project’s current issuance is 3 ETH per mined block. Discussion centered around whether that figure should stay put, or shift to 2 ETH (EIP-1234) or 1 ETH (EIP-858). 

Also read: China Blocks Access to More Foreign Exchanges in Ongoing War on Crypto

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To Reduce or Not to Reduce? That’s the Question

Ethereum Core’s 45th meeting had as a keystone topic a formal discussion around whether the Ethereum blockchain’s ether issuance should be reduced or stay put at its current 3-ETH-per-block level. The issuance metric was last modified during the project’s previous Byzantium update, wherein the level was lessened from 5 ETH to 3 ETH.

Specifically, up for discussion in the latest livestreamed developer meeting were proposals that would keep the ETH block reward where it’s currently at as well as reductions to 2 ETH and 1 ETH respectively.

No decisive path forward was determined during the meeting and the parties at-hand agreed to return to topic at a later date. Still, in the livestream and beyond, there were and have been strong opinions about a potential issuance reduction.

What’s next for the Ethereum community? It’s up in the air for now.

Generally speaking, skeptics have worried that without a simultaneous reduction of mining difficulty, an ETH issuance lowering could eradicate the profitability of mining on Ethereum. The argument here is that ETH GPU miners would branch out to more profitable coins accordingly.

On the flip side, a whopping majority of voters on CarbonVote have voted for a new ETH issuance of less-than 3 ETH but equal-to or less-than 2 ETH. Likewise, in today’s livestream, developer Matthew Light made a resounding case for why a lessening should be in order.

While today’s formal discussions were ultimately indecisive, developers like Hudson Jameson have been reaching out to miners in recent days in order to bring an array of stakeholders into the conversation.

For many, then, all eyes will be on the future Ethereum Core meetings where issuance rates may once again be a central topic.

A Contentious Fork?

Others have brought up the possibility of a contentious hard fork of the Ethereum mainchain come Constantinople over the issuance issue.

Whether such a dynamic will  come to bear remains to be seen, but it will certainly be a plot point to keep an eye out for in the coming weeks.

Placeholder partner Chirs Burniske has even posited that a contentious fork may not affect ETH markets “negatively.” Again, it will be an interesting thread to keep an eye on going forward for everyone in the cryptoverse.

Only time will tell what happens next.

What’s your take? Are you an Ethereum miner? What would you like to see the issuance level at? Sound off in the comments below. 

Images via Pixabay

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