I really like this idea. I didn’t like it until today, but then I was talking to someone who I won’t name in case they don’t want this attributed to them, but they said they thought if the Zcash community did switch the PoW, that there would be a legacy-PoW chainfork using the old PoW (Equihash-200,9). That really took me aback. My assumption was that whatever the community consensed on, everyone would go along with it [*].
But, then another person who I won’t name (but they should feel free to jump in and take credit if they see this) said “Well, if there is going to be a chain-fork anyway, why don’t we make both chains ourselves and beat them to it?”. And I said something like “Well, maybe if there are going to be multiple chains, then the Zcash Company could offer tech support for all the different chains! (If we could get funding to support each one.)”.
So, there are a lot of possibilities in the air. It’s interesting to compare the similarities and differences between:
a. There are two chains — Equihash-200,9, and New-PoW. They have separate coins with their own prices. [**]
b. There is one chain but it has a dual PoW: half of the mining reward goes to Equihash-200,9 miners, and half to New-PoW miners. There is still only one coin though.
[*] footnote 1: And in fact, I’m still kind of 50/50 on whether there would be a legacy-PoW chain fork at all, in response to a PoW-update, or if everyone would get behind the new thing. After all, there was a legacy-PoW chain-fork (or multiple ones ??) in Monero, but I can’t tell if they were sincere Monero community members who wanted to try a different thing, or if it is just like an astroturf campaign, or what. If it rapidly fades (and doesn’t make substantial money for anyone along the way), then that’ll presumably dampen any enthusiasm for an Equihash-200-9 chainfork of Zcash. If they survive and grow (like Bitcoin-Cash and Ethereum-Classic have), then that means something else entirely. I guess if the energy is coming from “now I have an ASIC miner for this algorithm, what coin shall I mine?”, then the current crop of Equihash-200,9 alternatives would provide a better outlet for that energy than the CryptoNight alternatives.
[**] footnote 2: Fortunately, Zcash Overwinter will activate before anything like this could happen, thus protecting users against replay mis-spends. Way to go, Zcash engineering team! 