The phrase 'Ethereum Fair' means two different things depending on who you ask. One meaning is EthereumFair (ETHF), a Proof-of-Work fork of Ethereum created after the Merge in September 2022. The other is a growing body of Ethereum protocol research asking whether the network itself is fair: who captures MEV, who gets their transactions included, and whether fee markets treat all users equally. This article covers the ETHF fork in detail. It also explains what the broader fairness debate is about, because both searches land here.

What is EthereumFair?

Ethereum Fair (ETHF) is a fork of the incredibly popular Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Specifically, when the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade occurred, subsections of the community split off and forked the ETH blockchain in order to create their own chains.

EthFair is one of these forks. It is based on how Ethereum used to work prior to the launch of Ethereum 2.0.

Importantly, the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade saw the Ethereum network adopt a consensus mechanism known as Proof of Stake (PoS). In a PoS network, the network is powered by users who run validators and have a proven stake in the network.

Prior to this upgrade, Ethereum made use of a different consensus mechanism known as Proof of Work (PoW). Unlike PoS, PoW means rewarding users—known as miners—for helping validate transactions through an automated process.

Ethereum switching from PoW to PoS had been in the works for years, but finally took place in September of 2022. Proponents of the upgrade believe the adoption of PoS can help mitigate Ethereum’s high energy consumption and bulky transaction fees.

While this decision was broadly popular, some users—especially miners—felt left behind. Whereas they had previously received financial rewards for helping keep the network decentralized, the upgrade meant that miners became a footnote in Ethereum’s ongoing story.

Here is where EthereumFair’s own story begins. Its developers are largely anonymous, with little in the way of a strong online footprint being uncovered by our research. On their website, they merely refer to themselves as a “group of tech geeks in Silicon Valley.”

Core to EthFair’s features and principles, the project says it is dedicated to maintaining the PoW consensus algorithm that once powered Ethereum. This, its developers believe, allows for a system in which individual users maintain equal power regardless of their stake. At the same time, it means that miners can continue to be rewarded.

However, when comparing EthereumFair (ETHF) to other chains, the project appears to be struggling when it comes to adoption—the area that is arguably most important for the success of a decentralized network.

EthereumFair vs. Ethereum vs. Ethereum Classic

👉 Quick takeaway: All three share a common ancestor and almost nothing else. Ethereum kept the developers, the ecosystem, and the transition to proof of stake. ETC preserved proof-of-work mining with a nine-year track record. EthereumFair exists mainly as a post-Merge landing spot for miners, and its development activity has been close to dormant since late 2022.

Feature	Ethereum ETH	EthereumFair ETHF	Ethereum Classic ETC
Consensus	Proof of Stake	Proof of Work	Proof of Work
Origin	Original chain	Forked at the Merge September 2022	Forked after the 2016 DAO hack
Native token	`ETH`	`ETHF`	`ETC`
Developer activity	🟢 Very high 🏆 Most active development in table	🔴 Minimal 🔴 Last site update November 2022	⚠️ Moderate
Ecosystem size	🟢 Largest	🔴 Very small	⚠️ Small
Mining possible	🔴 No	🟢 Yes	🟢 Yes
Best for	DeFi, NFTs, staking 🏆 Best for everything except mining	PoW mining enthusiasts ⚠️ Chain longevity is unproven	PoW mining with longer history 🏆 Best PoW option of the three

EthereumFair's primary appeal is to miners who want to continue using PoW on an Ethereum-compatible chain. Ethereum Classic has the same appeal but a longer track record and larger community. For most users, neither is a substitute for mainnet Ethereum.

What is the EthereumFair Coin?

EthereumFair’s native token, ETHF, powers the transactions that occur within the network.

As a governance token, the project’s documentation states that ETHF will be the coin used in all applications that take place inside the EtherFair ecosystem.

ETHF can be obtained in two key ways: it can be purchased or mined. In line with the project’s ambition to maintain a Proof of Work (PoW) ecosystem, users who temporarily donate their device’s resources to the network are rewarded in the form of ETHF tokens.

How to Add EthereumFair to Metamask

On your MetaMask wallet, navigate to Settings, then Networks, then Add Network, and select Add a Network Manually. The network parameters you need are listed below. Always cross-check these against the official EthereumFair Twitter/X account before saving, since RPC URLs can change.

Network Name: EthereumFair

Chain ID: 513100

Currency Symbol: ETF

How does EthereumFair Mining Work?

As EthereumFair is a hard fork of the Ethereum chain, its mining system is a fundamental copy of the PoW mining system that was used prior to the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade.

While mining has been phased out by the current Ethereum mainnet, documentation of how PoW mining works can still be found on Ethereum.org.

However, EthereumFair has made slight tweaks to the process—specifically when it comes to mining difficulty.

While Ethereum’s mining difficulty increased over time prior to the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, EthFair claims to have minimized the mining difficulty coefficient. This was done as an attempt to encourage miners to adopt the network through the possibility of it being easier to receive rewards for mining.

EthereumFair Bridges

Orbit Chain's Orbit Bridge was originally listed as the primary bridge for EthereumFair. In January 2024, Orbit Chain suffered a security exploit that resulted in approximately $82 million in losses. If you are considering using any bridge associated with EthereumFair, verify the current status of that bridge independently before transferring any funds.

Bridges matter for a fork like ETHF because without them, moving assets between ETHF and more liquid chains like Ethereum mainnet becomes extremely difficult. A fork with no functioning bridge is effectively isolated.

Ethereum Fair Price

ETHF trades at approximately $0.0084 as of August 2026, down 99.95% from its all-time high. For a live figure, check CoinMarketCap directly.

The trajectory tells the story better than any single number. ETHF launched in September 2022 alongside the Merge and captured brief speculative interest from miners looking for a proof-of-work landing spot. It traded around $0.1178 in June 2023. It has since lost roughly 93% of even that reduced value.

Liquidity is the practical problem. OKLink's block explorer records fewer than 1,000 transactions per day, against hundreds of thousands on Ethereum mainnet. Thin volume means wide spreads and unreliable price discovery, so the quoted figure may not reflect what you could actually buy or sell at in size.

What Can We Learn From Ethereum Fair?

Observing EthereumFair’s official channels at the current point in time may not promote a lot of optimism about the project. In our research, we could not find concrete details about its developers. Nor could a whitepaper be found on the official site—which is riddled with dead links.

At the time of reporting, the project’s Medium account is suspended. Its official site shows that it was last updated in November 2022, and its technology roadmap does not feature any concrete dates.

For a project early in its lifecycle, the degree to which these factors matter will differ between individuals and could potentially change in the near future. For now, one factor that is unanimous is the importance of adoption.

As we have covered in our past article on Metcalfe's law, blockchains are only viable when they have strong communities of users. At the current point in time, EtherFair has a low volume of transactions compared to other chains.

Through OKLink’s block explorer, hiding zero value transactions reveals that just 621 transactions took place in the last 24 hours.

For comparison, PulseChain—an Ethereum 2.0 fork—had over 300,000 transactions on its first day alone.

As a result, EthereumFair currently serves as yet another reminder of the fact that a project’s goals are only a fraction of the battle. Adoption is crucial to the survival and success of any Ethereum fork.

What Does 'Ethereum Fair' Mean in Protocol Research?

Aside from the ETHF fork, 'Ethereum fair' is a term that researchers and developers use when debating whether Ethereum's rules give all participants a genuinely equal shot at block space and rewards.

Three problems sit at the center of this debate.

First, MEV (maximal extractable value). Validators and searchers can reorder, insert, or censor transactions within a block to extract profit. This benefits those with technical infrastructure and hurts ordinary users who get worse prices on trades or delayed confirmations.

Second, fee market design. Ethereum's EIP-1559 introduced a base fee that adjusts automatically, which improved predictability. But it did not solve the problem of sophisticated actors paying priority fees to jump the queue. Proposals like EIP-8046 (a uniform price auction over inclusion lists) and EIP-7999 (a unified multidimensional fee market) are trying to price different block resources, such as gas, blob gas, and calldata, separately. The goal is fairer pricing signals for all users.

Third, Execution Tickets. A 2026 paper from the University of Bristol, presented at IEEE ICBC, analyzed a proposed mechanism where validators buy tickets in a lottery to gain the right to propose a block. The research found that a forfeiture parameter creates a spectrum between two extremes. In an All-Pay regime, everyone pays regardless of outcome, which spreads MEV revenue more broadly. In a Winner-Pay regime, only the winner pays, which concentrates revenue. Neither extreme is perfect. The paper shows a direct trade-off between MEV-capture efficiency, protocol revenue, and allocation fairness.

The Ethereum Foundation's 2026 protocol priorities also list censorship-resistance metrics and native account abstraction as key levers for improving fairness at the user experience level.

For most everyday users, the practical takeaway is this: Ethereum is actively working to reduce the advantages that large, well-capitalized actors hold over smaller participants. These changes are not live yet, but they are moving through the research and proposal pipeline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Uniswap on EthereumFair?

Yes, since EthereumFair is a total system-state fork of Ethereum, all contracts were copied over, including UniSwap. All that was left to complete was a front-end for the project which can be found here:

https://dex.etherfair.org/#/swap

Does EtherFair have NFTs?

The EthereumFair dApps page listed NFT projects at launch. Given the project's low activity since late 2022, it is worth checking whether those projects are still maintained before interacting with them. Start at etherfair.org/dapps.

Does EtherFair have GameFi?

Same answer as NFTs. GameFi applications were listed on the dApps page at launch. Activity levels are unclear. Verify current status before connecting a wallet.

What is the difference between EthereumFair and Ethereum Classic?

Both are PoW forks of Ethereum, but they split at different points. Ethereum Classic forked in 2016 after the DAO hack. EthereumFair forked in 2022 after the Merge. Ethereum Classic has a longer history, a larger mining community, and more exchange listings. For miners who want a PoW Ethereum-compatible chain, Ethereum Classic is the more established option.

Is EthereumFair still active?

The signs are not encouraging. The project's Medium account was suspended, the official website was last updated in November 2022, and transaction volume is very low. That does not mean the chain has stopped producing blocks, but it does mean the developer and user community has not grown. Anyone considering ETHF should treat it as a high-risk, low-liquidity asset.

What is Ethereum fairness in the context of MEV?

MEV stands for maximal extractable value. It refers to the profit that block producers can capture by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions. Research published in 2026 proposes Execution Tickets and multidimensional fee markets as ways to distribute this value more broadly rather than concentrating it among large validators. This is a separate topic from the ETHF fork but shares the same keyword.

What is Ethereum Fair? The ETHF Fork Explained