ETC in a Nutshell

What is Ethereum Classic? ETC, or Ethereum Classic, arose from the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain as a hard fork from Ethereum block 1,920,000, and its functions are similar to those of ETH. The Ethereum Classic community strongly believes in the principle that “code is law,” which states  that blockchains cannot be manipulated by human whims and must instead run based on the consensus of the entire network’s computing power. Ethereum Classic employs a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to validate transactions and allows anyone to build, deploy, and use decentralized applications without the need for permission.

ETC’s Inception

In June 2016, the Ethereum community announced the creation of the DAO, which managed to raise around 12 million ETH in just 28 days. However, an anonymous hacker found a loophole in the smart contract that allowed him to steal 3.6 million ETH. The funds, however, had been placed into an account subject to a 28-day holding period, preventing the hacker from completing his getaway. To recover the lost money, the Ethereum community eventually voted overwhelmingly in favor of changing the Ethereum code. Ethereum hard forked, resulting in a backward-incompatible update that  made it possible to return all ETH, including the hacked funds, to the original owners’ accounts . However, not everyone wanted to forget the old transaction records, and a small number of miners continued to use the original blockchain as a form of protest, which led to the creation of the Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain.

Principles of ETC

In essence, Ethereum Classic is an open-source, blockchain-based, distributed computing platform with smart contract functionality. Ethereum Classic provides a decentralized Turing-complete virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. In a nutshell, ETC can be seen as a mixture of BTC and ETH.

How to mine Ethereum Classic? Like Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic uses a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to create a new block in the blockchain. A block consists of an array of transactions, and each block in the chain is linked to the previous block. In order for a transaction to be validated it must pass a verification process called “mining.” Miners can create and validate blocks using the ETC Hash algorithm. Once a block is validated, the miner is rewarded with a certain number of Ethereum Classic coins. You can mine ETC Bitdeer’s mining plans. This is a low-threshold, low-risk, and low-cost model in which major mining farms rent out mining machines and hashrate and miners purchase hashrate plans to mine coins.

While Bitcoin relies on Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXO), ETC adopts an account-based model. It allows the transfer of coins from Account A to Account B, freeing upa lot of space for DApp development. Both ETC and ETH have two types of accounts: externally owned accounts (EOA) and contract accounts (CA). An externally owned account is controlled by a private key, which can be created and used to sign a transaction, send messages to other externally owned accounts or contract accounts, and perform other operations. Externally owned accounts have no associated code. Contract accounts have codes associated with them and are controlled by their contract code. Once the contract is deployed, the code cannot be changed.

ETC Value

ETC is a PoW smart contract platform where miners compete against each other to verify the transactions of blocks and create new ETC. The block reward declines over time. As the reward changes, the estimated total supply remains around 210 million and the issuance cap is set at 230 million. As a result, the price of Ethereum Classic is rising.

In essence, ETC is tamper-proof, just like Bitcoin, as demonstrated by historical precedent.

ETC facilitates faster value transfers than Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency.

ETC focuses on Internet of Things (IoT) applications and enables a mathematically verified EVM.

Milestones

July 2016: ETC was launched.

October 2016: ETC declared independence and DAT ETC was unlocked.

March 2017: a monetary policy was proposed to set a limit for the total ETC issuance.

December 2017: ECIP 1017 was accepted to reset the limit for the ETC issuance. The block reward would be reduced by 20% at block number 5,000,000, and another 20% every 5,000,000 blocks thereafter.

January 2018: ETC sidechains were integrated.

March 2020: Ethereum Classic's block reward was reduced by 20% to 3.2 ETC per block with the arrival of block number 10,000,000. 

April 2022: the block reward for ETC was reduced from 3.2 ETC to 2.56 ETC.

Answer the following questions to test your ETC knowledge: 
1.Which consensus mechanism does ETC use?
2.What principles does ETC adhere to?
3.Is there a cap on ETC issuance?