The best version of Ethereum Classic cryptocurrency, or perhaps Ethereum itself. How and why ETC was created, what it has to offer users, and where it’s headed – in today’s review.
Table of Contents
Key Features of Ethereum Classic cryptocurrency
- Name: Ethereum Classic (ETC).
- Project launch: 2015.
- Protocol: Proof-of-Work.
- Production method: mining.
- Current stage: Active project, active development of new solutions.
Indicators as of January 2022:
- Limit: 210,700,000 units (132.2 million circulating as of January 2022).
- Market Capitalization: $3.8 billion.
- Capitalization rating: #41 according to Coinmarketcap.
- Community: 62,600 members of the Reddit branch.
Background of Ethereum Classic cryptocurrency
Even before the famous split into Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, there was an equally remarkable event in the cryptocurrency community. The Ethereum network had just barely begun, and it split.
The reason was the hacking of The DAO, Ethereum’s flagship organization, and the theft of $50mln. No one is surprised today, but in 2016 it came as a shock to the community.
Part of the developers, led by Vitalik Buterin, would make a decision – it was necessary to do a rollback and return the funds to the DaO fold. The noble decision was received ambiguously by both users and part of the community. The case clearly demonstrated that the decentralized network is not decentralized in general, and if desired, its creator can move millions at their discretion.
One of the most ardent opponents of rollback would be Charles Hoskinson. True, his motive was not to care about the future of blockchain or even to fill his own pocket – Charles simply suffered from narcissism in its clinical manifestation and really wanted his small but proud cryptocurrency. That’s how the ETC will begin in a strange way.
Fans of the Classic version insist – the genuine Ethereum remains Classic. From a technical point of view, this is true – the original is ETC, the hardfork is ETH. Later, ETC will formalize itself as a separate currency, for example, the ETH team’s decision to switch to Proof-of-Stake has no effect on the decisions of the competing network.
A little later, Charles will get specialized medical care, create a successful Cardano (ADA) project, and reconcile with Vitalik. The Classic team will face difficulties in 2020, surviving 3 hacks in a month. But it will survive, will take a course on integration with ETH services and will keep an eye on Buterin’s actions, offering the best solutions in its network.
A number of teams are making changes: ETC Cooperative, ETC Labs, ETC Core, Mantis, and others.
So that’s weird, but still a happy ending. And now about how it all works.
What exactly is it
Classic Ethereum is faithful to the principle of immutability: the account and funds cannot be managed by anyone but their owner. Even one of the biggest failures in the history of cryptocurrencies – three consecutive successful 51% attacks – did not change the views and did not make the team resort to rollback.
Represents the ETC ecosystem of smart contracts – the oldest in the market – with exchanges, tokens, games, document authenticators and more. The platform offers low fees and high transaction speeds. But that wasn’t enough; Dapp Direct statistics show that most of the DApps here don’t have an audience at all.
As of January 2022, this is the situation with trading – people are exchanging $0.5 billion worth of tokens daily, and the capitalization of $3.8 billion is not enough to stay at least in the top 30 largest cryptocurrencies.
This may change as ETH moves to a stacking model, Proof-of-Stake. The protocol change does not suit everyone, and participants will probably turn their eyes to ETC, which adheres to classic mining and Proof-of-Work.
How to mine and where to buy
To produce you need to mine. The complexity of mining the coin is low, which means low equipment costs, supported by pools.
You can buy on exchanges. Supported by the major participants:
- Binance;
- Coinbase;
- and others.
After several successful attacks not every site is ready to support the project. On the other hand, this did not prevent the crypto to add 1,000% since the beginning of the year, but only temporarily, now the price is fluctuating around $30.
Where to store
On hardware (Ledger, Trezor), mobile or desktop wallets – usually with support for multiple coins. Among them:
- Atomic Wallet;
- Ethereum Classic Wallet.
- Exodus;
- Trust Wallet;
- Jaxx.
How and where to use
There is no difference with Ethereum in this part. The ecosystem includes exchanges, games, other applications, bridges between blockchains. The only differences are in two things:
- Speed/collection – ETC wins in this aspect;
- the number of services/nodes/users – ETC loses in this aspect.
ETC token is used to pay for one-time fees, application services. It is popular among traders.
Technology
Compared to Buterin’s Ethereum, the original is no different. But only at first glance, you can find unique technological solutions on the network.
Metronome. This is the name of the first inter-network cryptocurrency based on Ethereum Classic. For now, Metronome can be moved – to make cheynhops – between the two ethers without resorting to intermediaries. Moves between QTUM and RSK are in the testing phase.
OpenRPC. Emulates OpenAPI, the REST API specification. Allows developers to create applications that are ready to communicate between different blockchains.
Bridges. The main two are PeaceBridge and TokenBridge. The first allows you to check transactions in ethers, the second allows you to operate with Wrapped ETC coins. WETC is minted on Ethereum and supports its ERC20 standard.
Treasury. Donations from the community have not proven to be the best way to make money. The establishment of a centralized treasury, pretty much what the creators of the fork struggled with early on, has been widely discussed in the Classic camp.
Prospects
The project has found its niche – with ETH’s transition to PoS, ETC will become the largest PoW-compliant smart contract marketplace. The latter also means keeping Satoshi’s original vision and one of the main principles of cryptocurrencies – minimizing trust.
It will remain the only major programmable PoW system. Bitcoin and other large PoWs adhere to the UTXO transaction model, which makes it impossible to program them at a basic level, only through Layer2 add-ons.
An overlooked fact is the limited supply of coins. A maximum of 210,700,000 tokens can circulate on the network, turning ETCs into digital programmable gold.
With more versatility and utility, the cryptocurrency could absorb a share of BCH, LTC and DOGE.
ETCArmy’s roadmap is conservative and robust. Technical plans:
- Introducing SHA 3, a new efficient mining protocol;
- Launching FlyClient – opening access to third-party blockchains;
- Ensuring all contracts are backward compatible, regardless of further upgrades.
Business Card:
- attract the attention of small businesses – positioning ETC as a reliable financial management tool;
- attract the attention of users and their families – positioning the ETC as an asset for long-term investment;
- attract the attention of banks and corporations – positioning it as a DeFi-ecosystem capable of handling large payments;
- to attract the attention of central banking states – positioning as a more reliable and efficient budget management platform.
