The claim
“PulseChain is just a copy of Ethereum — a scam fork with nothing new.”
A recurring claim; no single original source is attributed here.
What the code shows
The copy is the design: the client takes over Ethereum’s full state up to block 17,232,999, and block 17,233,000 is PulseChain’s first own block (go-pulse params/pulse.go:43). What is its own: chain ID 369 (:25), a separate proof-of-stake beacon chain with 10-second slots, 32,000,000 PLS per validator and a burn of part of validator rewards, its own deposit contract and the sacrifice credits — all in published open-source clients. Read the client config.
What exactly is claimed?
That PulseChain adds nothing of its own: the clients are renamed Ethereum software and the chain is a duplicate of Ethereum, so the project is a “scam fork”. The factual core is correct — most of the client code comes from go-ethereum and Lighthouse, and the chain began as a copy of Ethereum’s state. The question the code can answer is whether anything is new.
What was copied on purpose?
Everything that existed on Ethereum after block 17,232,999: every balance, token, NFT and contract, at the same addresses. Block 17,233,000 is the first block that differs — on PulseChain it is dated 2023-05-10 22:52:51 UTC (params/pulse.go:43). The client also keeps Ethereum’s history and fork rules for the blocks before it (params/pulse.go:26-40). Copying the whole ecosystem was the publicly stated idea of the project.
What is PulseChain’s own?
| Element | PulseChain | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Chain ID | 369 | go-pulse params/pulse.go:25 |
| Slot (block) time | 10 seconds | lighthouse-pulse …/pulsechain/config.yaml:40-41 |
| Validator stake | 32,000,000 PLS | …/presets/pulsechain/phase0.yaml:32 |
| Base reward factor | 64,000 (scaled to the larger unit) | …/phase0.yaml:70 |
| Validator reward burn | rewards × 10/12 for the shorter slot, then × 3/4 — 62.5 % of what the same formula would pay | lighthouse-pulse …/common/pulse.rs:3-11, prysm-pulse core/pulse/reward_burn.go |
| Deposit contract | 0x3693693693693693693693693693693693693693, written at the fork |
go-pulse pulse/deposit_contract.go:54-74 |
| Sacrifice credits | PLS added at the fork from a published file | go-pulse pulse/sacrifice_credits.go:15-50 |
All of it is published in the official repositories — execution clients (go-pulse, erigon-pulse) and consensus clients (lighthouse-pulse, prysm-pulse) — and runs as an independent proof-of-stake chain since May 2023. How it works: How PulseChain works.
Is forking unusual?
No. Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin Cash, for example, are forks of their parent chains. Whether lower fees, faster blocks and a full copy of the Ethereum ecosystem are worth having is a product judgement that users make for themselves.
What is fair in the criticism?
Most of the client code is upstream code, and PulseChain depends on that upstream work continuing. Copied tokens on PulseChain are also not the same as their originals — a copied stablecoin is not backed by its issuer (System copies myth). Both are reasons to understand the chain before using it.
What about the word “scam”?
That is a judgement about intent, which code cannot show. No court has ruled on the nature of PulseChain or PLS: the SEC’s case, which named PulseChain among the defendants, was dismissed in full on 2025-02-28 on jurisdictional and extraterritoriality grounds without deciding that question (legal timeline).
Verdict
Partly accurate. “A copy of Ethereum” describes the starting point correctly and openly. “Nothing new” is contradicted by the code: PulseChain runs its own chain with its own parameters and reward rules, in public code.