In fact, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the closest to the original blockchain that Vitalik Buterin came up with. But Ethereum itself is its clone.

Ethereum Classic is a public decentralized platform that supports smart contracts. The basis of this project is its own digital currency.

The environment ensures the free operation of services and applications, as well as allows users to manage digital assets without banks and other financial institutions acting as intermediaries.

Characteristic features of the project include:

1. Full decentralization
2. Stability (information in the registry has been stored since 2015)
3. Invariability (no changes from the outside).

Speaking about ETH and ETC, we can’t but compare them to find the key differences.

• Ethereum Classic has a limit, whereas in the case of Ethereum there is no limit.
• Ethereum has a “difficulty bomb”, whereas in the case of its opponent it is not provided.
• Transition to the PoS algorithm for ETC is not planned, as it is considered to be less secure and less resistant to centralization.

In general, despite the fact that ETC is not that popular and has a smaller capitalization, it was able to gather around itself a sufficient number of adherents. It is a token of a blockchain platform that is also paid as a reward for mining.

The blockchain project helps improve the way values and assets are exchanged in the world of digital money. One of the developers’ goals is to introduce the Internet of Things, which involves interaction between objects in a way that minimizes human involvement.

As of 04.11.2022, the following characteristics can be highlighted:

• value $25.06
• capitalization $3.4 billions
• supply volume 137.7 millions ETC (65%)
• 146.55 TH/s

As mentioned above, ETC is a closer version of Vitalik Buterin’s original idea and adheres to the principles of stability and decentralization. Experts note the high liquidity of the altcoin.

Providing, usage and mining of Ethereum classic

Despite the fact that Classic has no backing in the form of fiat money or any assets, the developers have taken care to maintain its stability. For example, in the form of setting up limited issuance, forks, as well as partnerships with exchanges and large companies.

The main functions, as well as directions for its use, include:

• participating in the launch of smart contracts and applications
• conduction of transactions
• tool for getting rewards for mining
• way to pay for goods or replenish the balance in online services
• exchange transactions

The main ways of obtaining ETCs include:

1. mining
2. purchase
3. transfer

Mining is done through farms or ASIC miners. Both solo mining and pool mining are available if the user chooses. A separate incentive to get ETC is Ethereum’s transition to the PoS algorithm, which occurred on 9/15/2022.

Top 5 pools for ETC mining

• Ethermine
• 2miners
• Hiveon
• F2pool
• Poolin

Ethermine is the largest pool for ETH mining, supports a total of 7 coins and was opened in 2016. According to the average data, about 75 blocks are added per hour. It runs on four servers, and the software is released for Windows and Linux and supports Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. As of 04/11/2022, the hashrate is 26.5 TH/s and the commission is 1% PPLNS.

2miners is a multicurrency pool that supports over 18 coins as well as different mining algorithms. The project is open source, the servers are located on different continents. Free notifications are available via email and Telegram. As of 04/11/2022, hashrate is 17.6 TH/s, the commission is 1% PPLNS.

Hiveon is a stable leader in mining not only ETC, but also ETH. The main feature of the pool is the absence of commissions. Servers for ETC mining are located in Russia, Asia and Europe. There are 3 coins available in the pool. As of 04/11/2022, the hashrate is 15.2 TH/s, 0% PPS+ commission.

F2pool is one of the first pools started in the world. It opened in 2013. Leads not only in ETC mining, but also BTC and LTC. Supports more than 20 coins. As of 04/11/2022, hashrate is 27.7 TH/s, commission 3% PPS.

Poolin is a tech pool with support for 10 coins. It offers comfortable features and tools to work with. Opened in 2017. As of 04/11/2022, the hashrate is 8.0 TH/s, 3% PPS+ commission.

ETC mining is available on 84 pools.

The most obvious idea was Ethereum Classic (ETC), a hardfork of the Ethereum blockchain that was launched in July 2016 after The DAO was hacked. The decentralized autonomous organization held a $150 million ICO in ETH, and 3 months later was hacked for $60 million.

A solution to this situation was proposed: perform a network hardfork and “roll back” the state of the blockchain before the attack was committed. Part of the Ethereum community did not agree with this solution and supported the pre-fork version – today it is known as Ethereum Classic or ETC.

ETC has no central organization supporting blockchain development, so the network has undergone almost no changes since 2016. It still runs on the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm and pays rewards to miners.

The future of ETC and other options to mine

At the end of August 2022, the price of ETC soared by 69.5% and brought Ethereum Classic to the 18th place by total market capitalization. Now we have a price correction, the coin is trading at $24. By the way its peak price was reached on June 5, 2021 – $134.84.

It is worth mentioning that if at least 10% of miners switch from Ethereum to Ethereum Classic, the probability of creating a new block will be extremely reduced, the total amount of rewards per miner will also decrease, respectively. However, the transition of miners will provoke a strong interest in ETC, which will most likely lead to an increase in the coin’s price.

Today’s Ethereum miners are also considering other cryptocurrencies for GPU mining: Ravencoin (RVN), Einsteinium (EMC2), Verge (XVG) and others. You can calculate the profitability of mining a particular cryptocurrency on the mining calculators.

Many readers are aware of the fact that Ethereum switched to the PoS algorithm, which was a crucial step towards independence from the Bitcoin’s iron heel. The problem is that no matter how many technological chips the Ethereum developers introduce, no matter how many projects operate on the Ethereum blockchain, for most people, Ethereum has always remained a second cryptocurrency. 

With the switch to staking, there is every chance to expect Vitalik Buterin’s “ship” to start its own journey. Whether or not it will be found out in the coming months, but today Ether has continued to fall.

At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency has barely reached the mark of $1356, but it is possible that it will fall much lower. Consequently, there has been a noticeable increase in supply and daily trading. 

Cryptocurrency holders are getting rid of their savings, worried about a collapse on the back of bad news from developers. Unfortunately, by the evening of September 15, no one from the team had shared details with reporters. It is  probable that there is simply no information, because too little time has passed, so experts suggest not to draw far-reaching conclusions. 

It is no longer possible to mine Ether, millions of graphics cards were disable at one time, but did not come to the market. First of all, the community is waiting for the activation of the EthereumPoW fork (ETHW). As a reminder, this is a parasitic offshoot that aims to preserve the ability to mine Ether for those who don’t want to switch to other altcoins. As you have already realized, there are many more questions than answers today, so we are just waiting to see what happens with ETHW and will judge its success later.

Ethereum Classic Hashrate increased by 5 times

But it would be wrong to say that experts’ predictions turned out to be empty words. Note that the complexity of the Ethereum Classic (ETC) network has skyrocketed. On the evening of 15.09.2022, the hashrate passed 305 TH/s. There is a 5-fold increase in ETC mining difficulty.

If you don’t understand what this means, let’s make it short: not long ago, Ether’s hashrate exceeded 900 TH/s and was 20 times higher than ETC. After the blocking of mining, the freed up capacity had to go somewhere. Some of the farmers moved to obscure altcoins, others are waiting for ETHW, but almost half moved their capacity to Ethereum Classic. 

As the hashrate has increased by 5 times, the profits of the miners have collapsed in the same proportion. The only thing worth considering is that just recently a group of farmers came into the network, increasing the hashrate exactly 2 times. It turns out that mining ETC today is a terribly unprofitable process, because you spend more on electricity than you earn. 

Some of our readers have already started smiling to themselves, waiting for miners to go bankrupt, but nothing like that is going to happen. It’s all about the fact that hashrate and coin price are firmly linked. Today was too tough, and the number of investors is clearly not enough to turn the situation around. By the way, 15.09.2022 ETC dai ly trading was almost 2 times higher than usual. This suggests that there is interest from investors. 

We will not claim, because no one can predict the future development of events, but there is every reason to expect that Ethereum Classic will go up in price. Miners are very patient guys, that’s why the rate can stay low for a while, but to get out of the loss, the price needs to go up at least 5 times. As you can see, today due to a sharp jump in hashrate, the profitability has dropped so much that at the current price performance it would take 10 000 days to get back the investment. It is clear that miners will not be happy with such an outcome, so expect surprises. They will not necessarily be good for farmers and investors, because the market very often gives unpleasant surprises.

By the way, Ethereum Classic is not the only one to see a rise in hashrate. For example, the Cortex cryptocurrency has doubled its difficulty, Beam has tripled its hashrate, and Ravencoin has doubled its hashrate. There are others, but the overall increase is tiny, so all the attention today is focused on ETC.

The decision to move Ethereum to staking became known several years ago. For a long time, the situation didn’t change, and the developers talked about their determination, constantly pushing back the deadline. At one point, an ingenious scheme was invented to make the activation of the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm almost painless. 

We are talking about the Complexity Bomb, which could be used to reduce the number of coins mined by each farmer, which would inevitably lead to the futility of Ethereum mining. The decision to activate the Complexity Bomb has been constantly postponed, and today this hardfork seems to be completely useless, since the traditional way of mining coins will be finished in September.

It should be pointed out that, not so long ago, you could hear curious comments from prominent experts, confident that there won’t be a refusal of mining on video cards for a long time. We were told that PoS is just a phase in which certain initiatives will be implemented, while coin mining won’t be prohibited to farmers. Such statements were in the air recently, and the main problem lies in the strange behavior of cryptocurrency developers.  

If you study Vitalik Buterin’s interview, you’ll see that this guy is more than happy to talk about complex topics, thinking about the future of Ethereum, but cannot intelligibly answer the simplest questions. A few days ago, it was reported that mining would be finished on September 15, because the largest pool Ethermine announced that it would be shutting down its servers soon. 

Individual activists are trying to put together a fist to attack the network to create a fork, but so far, such actions do not seem to be serious. In the meantime, the developers have released an official bulletin with dates and explanations.

Transition to Ethereum Classic (ETC)

If there were still some hopes, they were damped, but new ones arose immediately. According to experts, more and more miners are leaving the sinking ship of Ethereum due to the ongoing events, and Ethereum Classic (ETC) is now considered a safe haven for mining. 

According to analysts, the cryptocurrency hash rate has more than doubled in 2 months and today reaches 50.13 terrahash. The previous record of 30.9 terrahash was beaten in 2 weeks, even though at that time the ETC price was several times higher than the current one. There is an opinion that Ethereum miners will continue moving to ETC, because there are almost no other alternatives.

It is assumed that there are only a few solutions in this situation. First of all, it is possible to completely sell the equipment. But this is only suitable for those who have several rigs with video cards at home, and large farms are not able to sell their hardware so quickly.  And they won’t want to do it because the money loss will be too high. You can hope for the development of the Ethereum PoW fork, but the chances are slim. 

Well, the easiest solution would be to transfer your power to mine Ethereum Classic. This cryptocurrency is as close as possible to Ethereum, which means that it guarantees approximately the same hash rate, but it’s more complicated with income.

So, already today the earnings of ETC miners have collapsed. The hash rate has risen, while the value is still low. At the same time, the more miners will come to the network, the less coins will fall as a premium to each of them. Obviously, only sharp ETC price growth can save the situation, but nothing like that has happened yet. 

In this case, it is important to emphasize the word “yet”. According to analysts, the Whales are withdrawing Ethereum en masse from cold wallets and transferring their coins to centralized exchanges. One of the major episodes of cryptocurrency market formation is unfolding before us.  

No one knows in what direction the Ethereum exchange rate will go, and the big fish are getting ready for the big jump. If you ask our opinion, we expect the ETC exchange rate to rise 5-10 times within a month. We don’t urge you to buy or sell anything, as even big analysts are wrong more often than not.

The transition to PoS was supposed to cause a boom, but the vague timeline and unclear policy of the developers led investors to withdraw money from a dubious asset. But if holders of Ethereum still have a chance to take back their investments, miners, however, found themselves in a predicament. It’s all about the fact that, with the drop rate, yield has also dropped and electricity prices are rising across the planet. Video cards are getting cheaper, and the prospects are lacking.

Over the past few weeks, cryptocurrencies have risen quite nicely. Bitcoin is now at the level of $23,000, and Ethereum – $1600. Opinions are divided on the reasons for what is happening, but many experts are inclined to believe that there is no fundamental reason for the growth of digital assets, and therefore the main driving force may be speculators and Whales. If the first are trying to get rich quick by swaying the market, the big fish are playing for the long haul. 

In the first half of the year, holders of large fortunes in Bitcoin increased their savings, but more recently their wallets have begun to deplete. It should be understood that there is no exact data on this since such manipulations take place behind closed doors.

But back to our miners. Many miners are afraid that after the transition of Ethereum to PoS they will have to sell their video cards at low prices. The market will collapse, and even at the current rather high prices of the cryptocurrency, it will be quite difficult to quickly recoup investments.

Ethereum Classic surpassed Ethereum in profitability  

Many are hoping for an alternative token that can replace Ethereum and receive the giant batch of miners. Until recently, there were several options, but none of them were capable of equaling Ethereum in terms of yield. 

But by all appearances, we have a worthy competitor. Pay attention to the chart above. As you can see the price of Ethereum Classic increased 3 times in the last two weeks of July. Experts say that if the dynamics of this cryptocurrency won’t change, it will soon be much more profitable to mine ETC than Ethereum. Except this isn’t the case, because it has already happened.

Now pay attention to the table below. This is the data of the earnings calculator for the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics card. It is not necessary to cling to the numbers, because there is a recommended price for this graphics chip at the time of the launch, but in this case, the other thing is important. 

According to calculations, it takes 340 days to return the investment with Ethereum, while mining Ethereum Classic it will happen in 337 days. In this case, these three days are not as important as the fact that for the first time in many years there is a cryptocurrency whose profitability allows not to worry about the transition of Ethereum to PoS. There will be no rapid transfer of farms to this altcoin, but that isn’t necessary today. For a long time, miners thought of network merging and staking as a doomsday. It looks like there’s no need to worry anymore.

Experts believe that more and more altcoins will become more expensive as the timing of Ethereum’s transition to PoS approaches. Obviously, Ethereum Classic won’t be left alone. Not only that, but there is an opinion that in the future there won’t be just some single altcoin that will accept all miners.

Here it is worth turning to the numbers. Today, Ethereum is worth $1,621 and Ethereum Classic is worth $36. In order to take at least 20% of all miners, the alternative cryptocurrency must rise in price by at least 10 times. It is extremely difficult to calculate accurately, but it isn’t even a matter of calculations, because there are millions of video cards mining Ethereum today. Even a small percentage can significantly reduce the profitability of any other asset. 

Conclusion

It is highly doubtful that Ethereum Classic will increase in price as the hashrate increases, but let’s leave such thoughts at least until October, because around that time PoS is expected to arrive.

Ethereum transition to PoS 

The fact that sooner or later Ethereum will switch to PoS has been known for a long time. Vitalik Buterin talked about it a few years ago, proving the prospects of staking, both technologically and environmentally. Obviously, even if Vitalik himself doesn’t think much about the problems of overconsumption of electricity, the effect of shutting down tens of millions of graphics chips will be huge. It won’t happen overnight, but by the middle of 2023 we may see a complete abandonment of the traditional way of mining Ethereum.

There is an opinion that this phenomenon will have serious consequences. Some believe that Ethereum’s exchange rate will bottom out, expecting a prolonged crypto winter. But there are also those who expect a sharp rise. We don’t know what will actually happen, but recent events suggest that the market keeps track of what is going on.

Recently, the developers held an online conference, in which they named the launch date of the test networks, as well as a preliminary date of Ethereum’s transition to PoS. It is noted that the data is preliminary, as it does not consider possible postponements due to detection of certain critical errors. In any case, staking is near, and blocking of mining is not far off. 

You have heard all this many times before, but there is an important nuance that many people forget about. The thing is that miners began to prepare for the blocking of Ethereum long before the developers started talking about it in earnest. The search for a safe haven wasn’t successful, because in recent years there wasn’t a single candidate that would be able to replace Ethereum. 

In fact, there are a few coins that are mined with video cards, but most of them are frankly unprofitable, and miners dig them upfront. Many people hope that after the blocking of Ethereum this or that cryptocurrency will become the main one for the community of miners and will make good money for those who are mining it today.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) – a replacement for miners

According to many experts, ETC is the most likely candidate to replace Ethereum. Notice that when recently Ethereum went up by 27%, which is quite a lot, ETC managed to go up by 45%, which means that we have witnessed the market’s expectations turning into reality. 

It is still difficult to say how the situation will develop, but there are internal problems that are impossible to ignore. GeForce GTX 1080 Ti video card has almost similar income on Ethereum and ETC, but GeForce RTX 3070 is extremely unprofitable in the second case, which means it is more difficult to mine an alternative cryptocurrency.

That’s not all, because we forget that such profitability is only noticeable today, when the complexity of the network is minimal, because the number of miners there is negligible. Imagine that on January 1, 2023, 90% of all miners that are mining Ethereum will end up on the street. That would increase the complexity of mining ETC by at least 10 times, which means the profitability would collapse.

Each miner will receive 10 times less money for his/her efforts, and only a sharp increase in the value of the alternative cryptocurrency can save the situation. Without this, it is premature to take ETC, as well as any altcoin, seriously. Unfortunately, analysts have expressed doubts that there is currently a cryptocurrency capable of becoming a haven for all miners.

Conclusion

It is possible that the community will divide into several opposing camps, which will compete with each other, and at some point a price status quo will be established, allowing farmers to earn a stable income. Even if there are three or four cryptocurrencies, there is every reason to say that Vitalik Buterin’s idea of reducing the impact of mining on the environment will remain a blue-sky thinking. Millions of video cards won’t just disappear, and the big players are used to making money this way. Who’s to say that all these guys are going to leave the market overnight?

It is noted that network developers have been rehearsing the launch of a special algorithm designed to phase out the Ethereum (ETH) mining process. During the update process, the Ropsten test subnet encountered bugs, causing the transition to now be scheduled for September-October 2022 rather than August.

Difficulty bomb hindering the transition to Ethereum 2.0

It’s about a special code called Difficulty Bomb that has existed in ETH since launch. Running it instantly increases the difficulty of mining the cryptocurrency and ends up making the process impossible.

Previously, ETH cryptocurrency creator Vitalik Buterin and his team stated that the network will switch to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm in August 2022.

ETH, like Bitcoin, currently uses a consistent protocol called Proof-of-Work (PoW). There is no need for miners to generate processing power to keep the PoS network running. Ethereum’s operability will be ensured by holders of digital coins, who receive reward for storing them.

Gas is a service unit of the Ethereum Classic blockchain, which is used to calculate the cost of transactions. When paying rewards to miners, it is converted into ETC. The cost of gas may vary depending on the current load of the system. Therefore, knowing what gas is, you can significantly reduce the cost of transactions.

What is Gas in Ethereum Classic

The Ethereum Classic blockchain does not exist only for the functioning of the ETC cryptocurrency. It is designed to deploy decentralized applications. That is, ETC is a native coin that can be used for payments and the internal needs of the system.

From the point of view of software algorithms, Ethereum Classic is a decentralized system consisting of separate blocks. It allows you to conduct transactions without involving a third party (payment system or bank), as well as automate operations using smart contracts. All user actions are validated by nodes. They are maintained by other participants, who are called miners.

Ethereum Classic operates on the Proof of Work protocol. This means that complex calculations on expensive hardware are required to form new blockchain blocks and validate operations. Therefore, miners should be rewarded for their efforts. The rewards are formed, among other things, at the expense of the commission charged to users.

Gas is taken as the commission unit. This makes it possible to determine the values of the various tasks performed in the “block chain”. For example:

• ETC transfer from user to user;
• balance check;
• smart contract execution.

Gas’ functions

The Ethereum Classic blockchain can perform a limited number of tasks at the same time. Gas in this case acts as a mean of overload prevention. That is, a certain amount of gas is spent on certain tasks. If you need to allocate more power to perform additional tasks, you need more gas.

If a user wants his transaction to happen faster, he must be prepared to pay a higher fee. That is, he raises the limit of gas that he is willing to spend. You can do the opposite as well. But if the limit is low, the miners will not validate your operation because the profit is too small for them.

The same functioning system is present in the Ethereum blockchain. But after the transition of the Ethereum blockchain to the protocol of the second version and the Proof of Stake consensus, the validation will take place by the nodes that “blocked” ETH on the wallet. That is, powerful mining farms will not be needed, and validators will be forced to switch to another blockchain. The first contender for miner power is Ethereum Classic. As a result, the price of ETC, according to many analysts, will begin to skyrocket.

Why Ethereum is switching to PoS

For the blockchain, not only the speed is important, but also the stability of the blockchain, as well as the security of the operations carried out in it. Gas significantly reduces the likelihood of an attack on the blockchain due to special features of charging for each action on the platform.

However, Ethereum is now working on protocol of version 1, thus it does not have time to process all transactions (there is not enough computational power provided by miners). To maintain stability, it is necessary to increase the cost of transactions, which makes Ethereum unsuitable for a full replacement for traditional financial instruments. Users will not pay large fees for small transfers.

Therefore, in 2022-2023, there is a phased transition to ETH 2.0, that is, the protocol of the second version. It will solve several problems at once:

• Scalability – as the number of operations increases, the computational power of the network will remain the same. It will use the Proof of Stake consensus and for validation it is enough to have coins in the account.
• High commissions – due to the increase in the number of validation nodes, commissions can be reduced. Carrying out transactions does not require large hardware capacities.
• Low speed – changing the principle of formation of new blocks will speed up payments and other operations within the blockchain. 

Gas is not used exclusively in Ethereum Classic and Ethereum. For example, an additional GAS token functions in the NEO blockchain, which is used when deploying smart contracts and paying rewards to miners.

Miners against switching to Proof of Stake

There is an opinion that it was large cryptocurrency mining farmers who all these years prevented the transition of Ethereum to the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm. If you’re not aware, the former is built on using the computing power of hardware (a video card or ASIC miner) to generate rewards in the form of virtual coins. The latter is more reminiscent of the traditional banking system, where the owner of coins in Ethereum, deposits them into his virtual account, and after the generation of new tokens occurs at the expense of the interest paid by the developers of the cryptocurrency.

Since the fight against the lobbyists of the traditional way of mining Ethereum took years, in 2020 it was decided to launch a test network working on the PoS algorithm.This is the Beacon Chain, where billions of dollars’ worth of coins have been blocked for over a year. Holders cannot get them back, and Vitalik Buterin has not yet voiced the terms of escrow. To put it simply, holders don’t even know when these coins will be returned to them, or what percentage they will be entitled to in the end. Since all of these questions are tied to the timing of the network’s transition to Ethereum 2.0, we had to wait a long time for answers.

Implementation dates for the transition to Ethereum 2.0

In 2021 we were told that the great and powerful PoS would take place in the second half of the year, but later, dates began to shift. At some point, the developers took the willful step of launching several test networks already based on the Ethereum blockchain, which searched for bugs and pitfalls. If the first part ended relatively successfully, the second stage in the form of the Kiln test network caused a lot of problems.

As a result, Tim Beiko stated that a slight delay is expected, but the process has started and no one will refuse to block mining. There were bad rumors, and experts even began to suggest that the merge of the test Beacon Chain and the current Ethereum 1.0 won’t happen before 2023. As for the abandonment of mining, the process should stretch on for many months.

On May 20, 2022, Vitalik Buterin shared first-hand news at a major technology summit in Shanghai. According to him, testing has been completed, and today preparations are underway for the full transition to PoS. According to the creator of the cryptocurrency, this event will happen in August 2022. It is possible that as a result of any unpleasant surprises the timing will have to move, but even if something like this happens, you should not expect PoS later than October.

No other details of the upcoming changes were said, but even that is enough to understand that we are on the cusp of some very interesting developments. Earlier, the key developer of Ether, Tim Beiko, talked about how the efficiency of mining will decrease. The fact is that nothing catastrophic will happen with the move to PoS. What will reduce the profitability of the Ether network is the Difficulty Bomb. It will slow down block generation by 5 times in six months, which will automatically affect the profitability and force miners to look for other uses for their video cards. 

If you want to understand how this will happen, look for news on the launch of the London hardfork. It involves burning a small number of coins from the main network, which has affected miners’ revenues. To date, 2.4 million coins have been burned, and the rate at which these assets have been removed from the main network has been increasing gradually, only reaching maximum speed after a few months. PoS will activate the merger and the possibility of stacking, and the Difficulty Bomb will slow down the income of miners. And then the complete blocking of Ethereum traditional mining is not far away.

Big opportunities for Ethereum Classic

Surely you know that there is a “brother” of Ethereum called Ethereum Classic (ETC). Surely, absolutely all miners know that mining of ETC is similar to that of ETH. Equipment, mining mechanism, software, pools – everything is suitable for mining ETCs. Оборудование, механизм майнинга, программы, пулы – все это подходит для майнинга ETC. While Ethereum developers are getting closer to the merger and transition to Ethereum 2.0 and phasing out of mining, miners are already calculating how profitable it will be to switch their equipment to ETC mining.

Today the price of Ethereum Classic is about $22, and by capitalization among all cryptocurrencies, ETC takes the 28th place with the indicator of $4.5 billion. Yes, Ethereum Classic lags far behind its “brother”, but it is worth noting that the ETC limit volume is fixed (210.7 million coins) and today 64% of coins are already in circulation. 

Many crypto-industry analysts believe that most of the miners will migrate to ETC mining, which means that the price of ETC will surely go up. No one can say exactly how much the coin will be worth after miners migrate, but the price momentum will definitely be positive.

The inflow of new miners will not only increase the price, but also the inflow of new users and investors. The platform will receive a huge inflow of money, which will have a positive impact on blockchain development.

5M20 policy: operation

As you know, the Ethereum Classic monetary policy, also known as 5M20, is based on the principles of a fixed total supply and an emission schedule.

Currently, 67% of coins of the total supply, which amount to 210,700,000 ETC, are in circulation. Every 5,000,000 blocks, a block reward reduction of 20% is provided by the emission schedule.

A similar principle forms the basis of the Bitcoin network operation, with the difference that the next era of Bitcoin implies a halving of the block reward. Therefore, unlike Bitcoin’s “halving”, the new era of Ethereum Classic is denoted by the term “fifthening”. Comparable to Era 3 where mining reward was 3.2 ETC per block, Era 4 has decreased it to 2.56 ETC.

However, unlike halving, which happens once every 4 years, fifthening occurs much more often. Thus, the next era of Ethereum Classic is expected in May 2024. The developers claim that Ethereum Classic will catch up to Bitcoin level inflation by 2032. 

The 5 currently known ETC eras are described in the table below:

Undoubtedly, this list is not comprehensive and the network will continue to operate long after the end of Era 5. The 5M20 timeline is designed to last until the 2060s. Moreover, according to ETC developers’ plans, about 99% of all coins will be mined by 2065.

Results of the ETC fifthening: long-term and short-term perspective

The long-term goal of the 5M20 monetary policy is obvious: over time, the available liquidity of ETC will decrease (just like Bitcoin). Thus, the Ethereum Classic is a deflationary (rather than inflationary) asset that is programmable sound money, value of which should rise gradually.

As for the short-term results of entering Era 4, all we see now is a significant decrease of miners’ earnings. The reason is that in April 2022, the Ethereum Classic price dropped from $47 to $27, and still continues to go down. Even an event such as fifthening will not reverse this process. Thus, ETC is starting to lose ground to competing coins in terms of mining profitability.

Certainly, Ethereum Classic price is affected not only by events within the network, but also by the overall situation in the cryptocurrency market – and it is far from being rosy due to the global instability. However, many continue to believe in the prosperity of ETC and predict this coin the “moonshot” in the near future.

Well, we’ll have to wait and see.