What you should know about ETC

Can you guess which of the following is the original blockchain? Is it Ethereum (ETH) or Ethereum Classic (ETC)?

Judging from the name, "classic" must be the correct answer, and it is indeed the case! ETC is the original version of the Ethereum blockchain, and the original code has been retained after discussion by the community.

Now, be patient and join us in this issueAAX Academysecondary title

A Brief History of Ethereum Classic (ETC)

Ethereum Classic began with an unfortunate event.

In May 2016, the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) held a token sale with the goal of establishing a blockchain-based venture capital to fund future decentralized applications (DApps) within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Basically, a DAO is a complex smart contract – computer code that automatically executes tasks between multiple parties when conditions are met – that works in a decentralized manner.

Despite its ambitious goals and successful token sale, the DAO's code contained a major vulnerability that allowed attackers to steal ETH from the decentralized organization.

Attackers exploited this vulnerability in June 2016, triggering the infamous DAO hack, maliciously stealing approximately $50 million worth of ETH.

Needless to say, the DAO hack shocked the Ethereum community and caused the price of ETH to drop from $20 to $13.

After the DAO hack, the Ethereum community had to choose from three options.

• Do nothing and live with the consequences of the attack; or

• Initiate a soft fork and withdraw funds; or

• Deploy a hard fork to restore lost ETH.

Both soft forks and hard forks are major network upgrades. However, soft forks allow non-upgraded users and upgraded users to communicate with each other, while hard forks are not backward compatible with previous versions.

As developers realized that deploying a soft fork would expose the network to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, the Ethereum community decided to initiate a hard fork to recover funds lost in the DAO hack.

While the proposal was supported by a majority, a small minority in the Ethereum community opposed it, arguing that "code is law" and that blockchain networks should be immutable.

The failure of the two parties to agree on a solution eventually led to a split of the Ethereum blockchain.

secondary title

Ethereum Classic solves those problems?

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a blockchain platform that allows developers to deploy smart contracts and DApps.

While this function is the same as that of Ethereum (ETH), the ETC blockchain has two main differences.

First of all, the Ethereum Classic community opposes tampering with distributed ledgers and supports the view that "blockchain networks cannot and should not be modified".

Second, although there is no hard cap on the total supply of ETH, Ethereum Classic adopts a monetary policy of constant supply, allowing a maximum of 230 million ETCs to be created.

start upstart upsecondary title

Ethereum Classic (ETC) Price Performance

Now let's take a brief look at the price of ETC.

After experiencing some ups and downs after the DAO hard fork, Ethereum Classic started to make big moves in March 2017.

Between March 2 and June 18, the price of ETC has increased from $1.37 to $22.42, a surge of more than 1500%.

After a short correction period as the cryptocurrency bull market progressed, Ethereum Classic continued to surge in value in late October, pulling the price from $10.57 to $45.25 on Dec. 21.

However, due to the sudden prolonged bear market, the price of ETC began to decline throughout 2018, trading at $5.23 by the end of the year.

Although ETC experienced a small loss (-17%) in 2019, it performed well at the beginning of 2020, rising in value from $4.55 on January 1 to $11.82 on February 15.

The COVID-19 outbreak has hit the broader market and negatively impacted ETC prices (and most cryptocurrencies as well).

After reaching a 2018 low of $3.77 on March 13, ETC prices have since been on a moderate uptrend, trading at $7.03 at the time of writing.

AAX is a digital asset exchange powered by LSEG Technology. AAX Academy is a user education channel created by AAX, which aims to help more users learn novice tutorials and understand the basics of blockchain.

AAX is a digital asset exchange powered by LSEG Technology. AAX Academy is a user education channel created by AAX, which aims to help more users learn novice tutorials and understand the basics of blockchain.