What is Ethereum Classic (ETC)?

27 jul 2022 • 3 min read

Key points for “” with ETC symbol and orbiting symbols.

What is Ethereum Classic (ETC)?

The first thing you might think is that Ethereum Classic has nearly the same name as Ethereum. So, why is that? And where did it come from?

Well, the origins of Ethereum classic are actually the origins of Ethereum itself. In 2016, the DAO, which was a project operating on Ethereum, was hacked. That is, as a result of the exploitation in its smart contract software, $50million in ETH was stolen.

What happened after this was a vote by the Ethereum community on whether to reverse the hack or not. While the majority of the community voted to reverse the hack, a minority of developers and miners opposed the decision.The reason for this is the belief by Ethereum Classic users that the chain should remain unaltered to deliver on its guarantee of immutability.

So, in short, Ethereum Classic is a decentralized, blockchain-powered smart contract platform that retains the unaltered history of the original Ethereum blockchain.

How does Ethereum Classic work?

Ethereum Classic, much like Ethereum, is a blockchain-powered platform on which developers can deploy decentralized apps via smart contracts.

Also like Ethereum, the network employs Proof-of-Work as its consensus mechanism, where miners must compete to solve complicated math puzzles in order to produce the next block in the chain. Being a PoW blockchain comes with its issues, of course. i.e., the network can only process about 15 transactions per second, whereas Proof-of-Stake (Pos) networks are much more efficient. This has called into question the scalability of the network. A critique that has become increasingly relevant as Ethereum, by comparison, moves toward PoS with the Beacon Chain.

The network makes its decisions on upgrades based on its Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposal (ECIP) process, where authors, developers, editors and implementors all play a role in this process.

A very clear advantage of Ethereum Classic is that it benefits from Ethereum upgrades due to its EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatibility. This helps in light of its philosophy of slower, more careful innovation.

While this might keep investors and developers more safe, it means that the network cannot respond quickly to trends, and why it chooses to maintain its PoW consensus structure.

What is $ETC?

ETC is the native token of the Ethereum Classic platform. It powers the network and can be a store-of-value for investors. Unlike Ether, ETC is capped at 210million coins.