What is Ethereum Classic

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a cryptocurrency based on the open-source decentralized blockchain platform that uses smart contracts. The coin appeared after the branching of the original Ethereum blockchain, becoming in fact an extension of it. The hardfork was the decision of the majority of the Ethereum community as a way to restore finances and reputation.

A hardfork is the introduction of a new rule into the blockchain, necessary to update the software. It is a change in the code and operation of algorithms, introducing new technologies, leading to a bifurcation of the blockchain when the community decides that they will no longer follow the old protocol.
The 2016 Ethereum hardfork was made to compensate losses to investors in The DAO, a smart contract operating as a venture capital fund, whose hacker attack allowed an attacker to withdraw about $50 million. And the main problem was not the dollar amount, but the percentage of coins stolen to the total number of coins.

A new branch of the blockchain was created with the help of the hardfork, in which the hacker’s transactions became invalid. The part of the community that prioritizes decentralization over indemnification opposed the hardforge and continued to use the old network, giving it a new name, Ethereum Classic.

Users received as much ETC as they had ETH, preserving transaction history and private keys. The main principle of the community opposing the fork was “The code is the law,” corresponding to the principles of the immutability of the blockchain, the impossibility of changing the registry and undoing transactions.

Technical description

Ethereum Classic is a decentralized Turing-Ethereum Virtual Machine, which executes programs on public network nodes. From a technical point of view, Ether Classic is much easier to program smart contracts thanks to its own compiler.The main functionality of the Ether Classic blockchain is a network of smart contracts with the ability to create and work with decentralized applications (dApps).

Development team

The creators of Ethereum Classic, as well as Ethereum, are considered to be Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood. Several independent development teams are working on the support and development of Ether Classic network, there is no single centralized management. Some nodes of the network run on the Parity client, while others run on Geth Classic.

The development teams include:

• ETC Dev – develops Geth Classic in the Go programming language and includes Go and Rust developers, as well as consultants, strategic analysts and marketers. The team is working on updates to the network;
• Ethereum Commonwealth – working on the ERC-223 protocol, Classic Ether Wallet, ECNS and DexNS name services, a cross-network address messaging system and test networks to develop Callisto Network updates.

DexNS is a decentralized name service – an application with integrated wallet support that allows addresses to be named and then used to make transactions and access smart contracts.

• IOHK Grothendiek – working on the Mantis client in Scala, including developers, managers and researchers;
• EthCore – is developing the Parity client in the Rust programming language, which supports Ethereum Classic, Ethereum and Expanse;
• ETC Cooperative – develops marketing policy and handles PR and community management;
• ETC Labs – responsible for financial, community and ecosystem acceleration, and maintains offices in the US and Singapore.

The complexity of the Ethereum Classic

Ethereum Classic difficulty chart – https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/ethereum-classic/difficulty-chart

Mining complexity expresses the time it takes to process a transaction and receive a reward from the network – it depends on the power of the equipment and the complexity of the data processing. The more miners in the network, the higher the mining complexity due to competition.

The recent complexity of Ether Classic is approximately 300 TH/s.

In early 2017, the Die Hard hardfork was held, preventing the mixing of Ethereum and Ethereum Classic transactions. This hardfork successfully postponed the “complexity bomb” embedded in the Ethereum code to exponentially increase the complexity of mining and the process of calculating new network blocks. Unlike the main Ethereum network, Ether Classic has no plans to switch to Proof of Stake.

Ethereum Classic vs Ethereum: differences and similarities

Initially, the technical characteristics of Ether Classic fully corresponded to the main network. Ethereum Classic operates in many ways similar to Ethereum:

• Gas is used to charge commissions;
• Smart contracts are executed on a blockchain;
• The ecosystem consists of decentralized applications.

For Ethereum Classic and Ethereum, the significant difference is that the last one plans to move to the Ethereum 2.0 network, which will run on the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, while Ether Classic will continue to run on Proof of Work.

Proof-of-Work is an algorithm for protecting distributed systems from DoS attacks, spam and other abuses. Proof-of-Work is characterized by two main characteristics – the need to perform a complex and time-consuming task and the ability to easily and quickly verify the result.

Proof-of-Stake is an algorithm that uses the concept of “share” to determine which node gets the right to mine the next block. Difficulty is distributed in proportion to the balance of a given node – according to the number of coins or tokens on the user’s balance.

Also a significant difference of Ethereum Classic is the limited maximum supply – 210,700,000 coins. Ethereum (ETH) has no maximum supply of coins.

Advantages and disadvantages of Ethereum Classic

Pros    

• Complete decentralization of the network   
• Open Source   
• Fixed number of coins 
• Growing community 
• Affordable mining 
• Code supremacy principle 

Cons

• Vulnerability to 51% attack
• Scalability issues
• Reputation damaged by hacker attacks
• Market manipulation (Pump & Dump)
• High competition from other altcoins
• Underdeveloped infrastructure

Ethereum Classic: peculiarities of mining

Ether Classic, like the usual Ethereum, runs on the Dagger-Hashimoto (Ethash) algorithm. AMD and Nvidia video cards (GPUs) with 3-4 GB or higher are suitable for mining, as well as special Asic. Mining Ethereum Classic is possible using the power of a PC without assembling large farms and significant energy costs.

Mining Ether Classic offer various pools – associations of miners in one network:

• Nanopool;
• 2miners;
• Hiveon;
• EthTeam;
• F2Pool;
• Gpuminer;
• ViaBTC;
• Digger;
• MinerGate.

Tip! Choosing a pool to mine Ethereum Classic, pay attention to the number of computing power in the Ethereum Classic network and miners. The more people are mining Ether Classic in the pool, the faster the search for the required block, and therefore the more productive the process is.

Ethereum Classic mining is quite profitable because the hash rate of the network is lower than that of Ethereum. You can calculate the profitability for mining Ether Classic with the help of any mining calculator.

Ethereum Classic: cryptocurrency forecasts

The developers of Ethereum Classic are optimistic in their forecasts. Despite the fact that the reputation of the blockchain has suffered significantly due to hacker attacks on the blockchain, the network demonstrates resilience and positive dynamics of development. The main question is the future security of the project: if the teams can protect the blockchain and attract the creators of dApps, the network will evolve.