The ethereum ecosystem is returning to normalcy following a high-profile hack last month that resulted in nearly $60m worth of investor funds ending up under the control of an unknown group or individual.
The 'theft', as some would label it, was eventually reversed through what's known as a hard fork, a change in the code, 'approved' by an informal community vote, that effectively moved the disputed funds to a new account where investors could withdraw their original investments.
But while the immediate impact was limited to the ethereum platform, the implications of its decisions have echoed across the blockchain community, influencing everyone from already ardent ethereum developers to bank consultants seeking to build private blockchain solutions.
Joining this larger discussion have been bitcoin's software developers, many of whom have publicly claimed that ethereum's decisions not only permanently alter the value propositions of its platform, but have generated negative publicity that could harm all blockchain applications.
Unlike traditional database technology, one of the distinguishing features of a blockchain is that its ledger of transactions is distributed among all users, which gives participants involved the confidence of knowing they’re using the same record of credits and debits.
But these developers and infrastructure architects are growing increasingly concerned that now that ethereum has set a precedent for consensus formation based on the leadership of individuals, other blockchains might be compelled by regulators to make additional changes.
Bitcoin Core contributor Peter Todd told CoinDesk:
"This is potentially a very negative thing for bitcoin because it sets a precedent that an option to go deal with one of these failures is to go reset the chain, reverse things, and so on. It really calls into question the immutabilty of all these systems."
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-core-ethereum-hard-fork-unsettling-precedent/
