Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a type of cryptocurrency that is a continuation of the original Ethereum blockchain following the DAO attack in June 2016.
Ethereum Classic is a decentralized blockchain platform that lets anyone build and use decentralized applications that run on blockchain technology.
Like Bitcoin, no one controls or owns Ethereum Classic – it is an open-source project built by people around the world.
Ethereum Classic was designed to be adaptable and flexible, with the goal of making it easy to create new applications on the Ethereum Classic platform
Ethereum (ETH) is essentially a hard fork of the blockchain that was formed to refund the money that was siphoned during the attack (around $50 million).
History of Ethereum Classic
In the early days of Ethereum, a hacker successfully stashed away $50 million worth of ether overnight, and almost got away with it.
The fallout caused an ideological battle that divided the Ethereum community and shook the cryptocurrency community.
Would the community stick to the principle that “code is the law,” in the case of the hardened smart contracts that ran the ecosystem, or would they make an exception to save the fledgling community and return the stolen ether to its rightful owners?
The debate ended in a hard fork. The result created Ethereum blockchain splintering off, taking almost the entire community along with it, and leaving behind the original core code and separate community.
The fork also reversed the transactions and returned the stolen funds to the original accounts. But those that stuck true to their “code is law” ethos remained with the original core code, known today as Ethereum Classic (ETC).
The Ethereum Classic price is correlated to the rest of the cryptocurrency market, meaning as the value of some of the larger assets goes up or down, so does the Ethereum Classic price.
Currently, the Ethereum Classic price is trading at less than ten percent of the price of Ethereum, although both the price of ETH and the price of ETC move independently.
Ethereum Classic assumes no hard fork occurred and is supported by those who believe in complete immutability of the blockchain.
How does Ethereum Classic (ETC) work?
Ethereum Classic works just like Ethereum (although the price of Ethereum Classic and the price of Ethereum are drastically different).
It’s built on proof-of-work mining and smart contracts, but it doesn’t share compatibility or updates with the Ethereum (ETH) codebase.
This means that as Ethereum (ETH) transitions away from proof-of-work and into proof-of-stake, these updates will not necessarily take place with ETC unless the community develops them concurrently and independently.
ETC devotees claim there’s nothing to stop Ethereum (ETH) from implementing another hard fork if some other hack or corruption happens in the future.