Eligible clients have received the ETHW airdrop to their BTC markets wallet. Support is available for clients to withdraw ETHW, but ETHW trading will not be supported on BTC markets exchange.  




We are in the final stages of deploying the newly developed ETHW wallet infrastructure (currently in the testing phase). Our aim is for this to be complete by next week, and we will provide further updates as they become available. Thank you for your ongoing support.

We are pleased to announce that we will be supporting the token airdrop of the Ethereum fork, EthereumPoW (ETHW), and are currently working on a timeline for its distribution. Clients that held ETH at the time of the fork will be credited ETHW to their BTC Markets account.

We will provide further updates about the airdrop and distribution of ETHW tokens for BTC Markets clients on this page.

Ethereum PoW (ETHW) Support

Avalanche


Avalanche (AVAX) is an open-source platform that provides support for smart contracts and enables developers to create decentralised applications (dApps). The enterprise blockchain allows projects to be deployed in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.

AVAX is the native token on Avalanche, and acts as a staking mechanism and is required to run a node on the platform. These nodes receive rewards for participating in consensus and distributing transactions across the network. It also provides users with the ability to tokenise securities, trade digital assets and more.

Ava Labs launched Avalanche in 2020 with the goal of delivering a scalable solution while maintaining decentralisation and security, focusing on lower costs, fast transaction speeds, and eco-friendliness.

With Avalanche, users can create an unlimited number of customised and interoperable blockchains. To operate a blockchain on the Avalanche coin, AVAX, one must pay a subscription fee.

The native token AVAX is a utility token and serves as the medium of exchange for Avalanche’s ecosystem. In other words, the token is used as currency within the network, typically for fee collection in transactions, incentives and many other use cases. 

It is also used for staking AVAX, which serves to secure the network. Stakers are then rewarded with more AVAX. Some users stake AVAX to earn passive income on the network. 

When the Bitcoin blockchain was launched in 2009, it paved the way for the design and invention of blockchains that came after it, including Ethereum. With today’s wide-scale use of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols, however, the technical limitations of the original blockchain design became more apparent.

Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus, for example, inhibits decentralisation to an extent due to its resource-intensive validation process. Transactions also tend to be slower. Most Ethereum apps today use layer-2 scaling solutions to address these issues. By using layer 2, transactions are taken away from the main chain. They are then rolled in neat “bundles,” which are sent back to the Ethereum chain, taking pressure off Ethereum.

Although effective, this solution adds layers of complexity, making the network open to certain security threats. So, how can a blockchain keep everything within a layer-1 protocol that is decentralised and scalable, but also secure?

Enter Ava Labs, the founders of Avalanche, who came up with a brilliant three-blockchain solution to address the top problems that plague blockchains. In September 2020, Ava Labs US launched the Avalanche blockchain after raising $6 million USD during their financing round. Their subsequent token sales — private and public — amounted to $48 million USD.

The three people behind Avalanche are Kevin Sekniqi, Maofan “Ted” Yin and Emin Gün Sirer. A pseudonymous group called Team Rocket first released fundamental information about the protocol in May 2018 on the InterPlanetary File System.

A group of researchers from Cornell University then developed the technology, led by Cornell professor of computer science and software engineer, Emin Gün Sirer. He was assisted by two of his doctoral students: Maofan “Ted” Yin and Kevin Sekniqi.

The AVA codebase for the Avalanche consensus protocol became open-source in March 2020, making it available to the public. Avalanche’s initial coin offering (ICO) ended in July of 2020, followed by the launch of Avalanche in September of the same year.

What problems does Avalanche (AVAX) solve?

As mentioned earlier, Avalanche was built to address many of the issues most blockchain networks face. By providing an alternative to networks such as Ethereum, platforms like Avalanche work to combat centralization within the crypto space.

Two of the top issues that Avalanche addresses are:

Avalanche was deliberately designed with scalability in mind. On par with top-tier payment processors like PayPal and VISA, Avalanche has sub-second transaction times.

Avalanche is also tremendously powerful and efficient, having the capacity to process up to 6,500 transactions per second with sub-second finality. This is a vast improvement on Ethereum’s limitations in terms of the number of transactions that can be processed per second.

Considered by many as an Ethereum competitor, Avalanche also trumps Ethereum in terms of gas fees. Fees on Avalanche are more affordable than Ethereum by a wide margin.

Fees on the network are used for various purposes such as for creating and minting assets, staking, transaction fees and blockchain creation, after which these fees are burned, permanently reducing the number of AVAX within the platform.

According to Avalanche’s Twitter account “AVAX is a hard-capped, scarce asset used to pay fees and secure the network.” in response to used fees being burned. Burned AVAX can be checked on burnedavax.com 

To stay up to date on the latest from the AVAX community or learn more about upcoming features, please visit AVAX community page.

To learn more, visit the AVAX basics page.

Avalanche Basics | Avalanche Support (avax.network)

New Listing: Avalanche (AVAX)

Our customers advised that the current log in feature on the app needed work: sessions expired too quickly, and it was annoying to have to continually reset PINs/biometrics. We heard you, and a number of authentication enhancements are now available in the latest version of the mobile app. Update your version or Download the app now from the 

If you love using the app, please don't forget to give us a 5* rating via the app stores.

 - PIN codes have been upgraded from 4 digits to 6 digits to provide enhanced security.

 - Your PIN will be retained, even if your session expires, for easy ongoing account access.

 - If you have enabled biometrics for your account, this choice will be retained for easy ongoing account access.

 - Active sessions have been extended from 7 days to 30 days. Providing you access your account at least once every 7 days, your session will remain active and you will only have to log in again with email/username and password after 30 days. PIN and Biometrics are retained and do not need to be reset.

 - Your watchlist will now be linked to your specific account. This sets the groundwork for this feature to be extended to the web app. You will need to be authenticated to use the watchlist going forwards.

 If you forget your PIN or enter it incorrectly too many times, you will be logged out of your account. You will need to reset your PIN after logging back in with email/username and password. Your watchlist will still be retained.

Other updated included in this latest release:

Keypad updated to use native device keypad

User interface and user experience upgrades

Brand new Total Equity screen with interactive total equity graph and Portfolio diversification information.

Brand new Specific Asset screens with interactive asset equity graph, and easy to access deposit options.

If you have any feedback, issues or suggestions for our mobile app, please let us know via our 

New Mobile App Release: Authentication Enhancements

Ethereum

BTC Markets has been supporting the Ethereum chain and its updates since Ethereum commenced in 2015. If you are holding ETH, your assets will remain safe before, during and after the Merge. 

What are BTC Markets doing to support the ETH Merge? 

As the date of the ETH Merge is not fixed, BTC Markets are carefully tracking updates within the crypto community and have the team on standby to support necessary activities at the time of the Merge. 


To manage any instability in the network, BTC Markets will suspend deposits and withdrawals of ETH and ERC-20 tokens for a short time before and after the Merge, which is forecast to occur on the 15th of September 2022. 


It is possible that the ETH Merge will result in a hard fork, leading to the existence of two chains. A snapshot of ETH balances will be taken at the time of the Merge, so that if there is a split, we can effectively distribute the new token to our clients. Further updates will be provided should two viable chains emerge. 


Clients of BTC Markets will still be able to trade ETH and ERC-20 tokens during this period. 


We will keep you up to date via announcements on our social media pages and direct emails. 

What is a hard fork and what does it mean for me? 


There are two possible outcomes should a fork occur following the Merge:

 If the PoS chain is supported by most of the community, and there is little support for a PoW forked chain, only one chain will remain.


 If the Merge is contentious, and there is continued support for the current proof of work consensus mechanism, it is possible that two viable ETH chains will emerge, and a new token will be created. For this reason, BTC Markets will take a snapshot of all ETH holdings at the time of the Merge. We will then credit clients for the new chain, based on the snapshot of ETH at the time of the fork expected to occur on the 15th of September 2022. 

Your ETH private keys will remain secure on BTC Markets during this time. 


 Clients can trade ETH and ERC 20 tokens on the exchange during this period. However, if the chain forks, we cannot guarantee what fork of ETH your trades will ultimately relate to. Please remember, ETH and ERC-20 deposits and withdrawals will be disabled ahead of and during the Merge. 


 If you want to continue to deposit and withdraw your ETH, you may send your tokens to a platform maintaining these services. Please be advised that this action may expose you to a higher level of risk. 

Preparing for Ethereum's Merge as a BTC Markets Client

Please be advised that we will be performing necessary scheduled maintenance on Friday 2nd September 2022, between 2am and approximately 7am AEST.

All services (the site and API) will be offline during this time. 

Please follow us on 

Scheduled Maintenance Downtime: Fri 2nd Sept 2022

ETH Merge date is anticipated for 15th September 2022

The network is transitioning from a proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism

The Merge is expected to reduce Ethereum's energy consumption by ~99.95%

Customers do not need to take any action to participate in the Merge

BTC Markets will monitor activity at the time of the Merge and evaluate any possible forks

"The Ethereum network move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism has been compared to changing a plane's engine mid-flight. It is hard to work in technology and not be thrilled by this audacious undertaking, so near completion"

After years of planning and development, the Ethereum Mainnet is anticipated to migrate from its existing PoW consensus mechanism to its new PoS validation structure on 15th September 2022. The Merge, announced by 

 will improve the scalability and sustainability of the Ethereum network. In this article, we will explore some of the basic concepts of Ethereum, the significance of this Merge, and the impact it may have on you as a holder of ETH.

Ethereum is a programmable blockchain, which is a software platform that can be re-coded to build new uses for the technology. The network’s digital asset, Ether (ETH), is the second largest by market capitalisation.

Ethereum has a feature called smart contracts. A smart contract automatically executes the terms of an agreed contract, without the need for any third party. It is useful for many industries, including e-commerce, e-gaming, and financial services.

, the “Mainnet is the primary public Ethereum (ETH) production blockchain, where actual-value transactions occur on the distributed ledger. When people and exchanges discuss ETH prices, they're talking about Mainnet ETH.”

The Mainnet currently operates on a PoW consensus mechanism that enables the Ethereum network to agree on things like the order of transactions or account balances. This avoids the possibility of double spending, and ensures that the Ethereum blockchain is very secure.

PoW relates to the underlying process that miners undertake to add valid blocks to the blockchain. As more blocks are added and the blockchain gets longer, the work gets harder. This means miners need to consume larger amounts of computing power to validate new blocks, which in turn is very energy intensive and not very sustainable.

The Beacon Chain is Ethereum's new PoS blockchain, and has been described by 

 as the “spine that supports the entire Ethereum 2.0 system”. Like Mainnet, the Beacon Chain is the consensus mechanism of the network, responsible for creating new blocks, validating them, and rewarding validators with ETH for keeping the network secure.

It was deployed in December 2020 and has been running parallel to Ethereum’s Mainnet, confirming on-chain data, but through the PoS consensus mechanism. Running the chain separately, allowing for the identification of bugs or development issues prior to the Merge.

Being a PoS network, the Beacon Chain uses less energy than the PoW protocol (~99.95% less), as transactions and blocks can be approved quicker without the need to solve complex equations. Blocks on a PoS chain are said to be ‘forged’ as opposed to ‘mined’.

The Beacon Chain has been in operation for 19 months, testing its integrations through the various networks that Ethereum has deployed. Most recently they completed a Merge on the Goreli testnet on August 12th, 2022 - the largest of Ethereum’s test networks. This signalled the final hurdle before a Mainnet migration can occur, which is anticipated to take place on the 15th of September 2022.

Around 15th September 2022 (at TTD 58750000000000000000000), data held on the Mainnet (the existing PoW consensus protocol on Ethereum) will be merged with the Beacon Chain, and the new PoS consensus will become the engine for block production on Ethereum. After the Merge has successfully taken place, mining will no longer be the means of producing valid blocks on the network, and all future block validation will be processed through PoS.

No history is lost from the blockchain. As Mainnet gets merged with the Beacon Chain, so too will the entire transactional history of Ethereum.

The move to a PoS consensus mechanism will provide the Ethereum network with heightened security, reduce energy consumption (by 99.95%* due to less computational power) and provide greater scalability opportunities not currently available under PoW e.g. sharding; a feature that makes data transfers and accessibility faster and more efficient for layer 2 rollups. Caroline Bowler stated, "The Merge is said to be the first of five major improvements to the Ethereum network. Vitalik Buterin is quoted as saying this will move the network from 40% to 55% completed".

PoS also allows ETH holders to earn crypto rewards through staking. Ethereum staking rewards are earned by setting up an individual node or delegating your ETH to a pool. By participating in staking, you assist in the validation of the Ethereum blockchain, further securing the network. The Ethereum network offers ETH as a reward for doing this.

Setting up your own pool requires 32 ETH, but if that’s not feasible, you can join a staking pool. More information on staking can be found on 

.

Unfortunately, due to the Australian regulatory requirement to hold a managed investment scheme license, BTC Markets is not currently able to support pooled staking for any asset. We will continue to monitor the regulatory landscape while we investigate alternative earning opportunities for our customers.

Will the Merge Impact Ethereum Token Holders? 

As a holder of Ethereum, there is nothing you need to do with your funds or wallet ahead of the Merge. There is no upgrade to an “ETH2” token, and any funds held before the Merge will still be accessible after it is complete.

It’s important to remain vigilant as scammers may attempt to target users unaware of how the Merge will be executed. Do not engage with notifications asking you to redeem, swap, or send ETH for “ETH2”, or any offers from others to act on your behalf to prepare you for the Merge.

There is some community speculation of a new Ethereum token due to a hard (contentious) fork following the Merge. BTC Markets will monitor activity at the time of the Merge and if a hard fork occurs, evaluate the impact on the network. To manage network risk, BTC Markets will suspend ETH and all ERC_20 token deposits and withdrawals a couple of hours before the Merge. This freeze will remain in place until the Merge is complete and the network is stable. We will keep our customers informed via our social media channels (

) during the event.

A small number of exchanges have listed ETHS and ETHW tokens as pre-emptive tokens in the event a hard fork occurs, and two chains emerge as viable. However, these pre-emptive tokens are not endorsed by the Ethereum Foundation.

Please always check reputable sources, such as Ethereum.org, for official releases and guidance.

What does the Industry Expect to Happen to Ethereum Post-Merge? 

, Ethereum could become worthy of institutional investments and adoption post-Merge. The report suggests that crypto could go the way of futures and exchange-traded funds as companies look to diversify their holdings into the crypto landscape.

BTC Markets is excited about what the upcoming Merge will do for the Ethereum blockchain and the impact it will have on the broader crypto ecosystem. 

If you have any further questions, please contact our 

BTC Markets Blog

Ethereum PoW (ETHW) Support

New Listing: Avalanche (AVAX)

New Mobile App Release: Authentication Enhancements

Preparing for Ethereum's Merge as a BTC Markets Client

Scheduled Maintenance Downtime: Fri 2nd Sept 2022

The Ethereum Merge is Coming