Correcting the CoinDesk Article About Ethereum Classic
The crypto news agency CoinDesk has an article about Ethereum Classic (ETC) with the title and tag “Ethereum Classic: ETC 101, Ethereum Classic was created in 2016 after Ethereum’s blockchain split into two separate chains” in the following link:
https://www.coindesk.com/learn/ethereum-classic-etc-101/
The post has an introduction and then 5 sections.
The text has some good information, however some parts have mistakes or common misconceptions that we wish to clarify. Additionally, we would also like to add some more content to reflect a more complete picture of ETC.
In the following sections we will go over CoinDesk’s statements, we will propose corrected phrases and additional content, and express our rationale for the changes and additions.
Section: Tag Line
CoinDesk Statement:
Ethereum Classic was created in 2016 after Ethereum’s blockchain split into two separate chains.
Our Corrections and Additions:
Ethereum Classic (ETC) was created between 2014 and 2015, and launched in 2015. Both Ethereum Classic and Ethereum (ETH) were one blockchain at the time. Then, in 2016, Ethereum split from the mainnet due to a controversy regarding a decentralized application called The DAO.
Rationale:
As we pointed out above, there are several misconceptions about ETC in the industry. One of those is that it was created in 2016 as a consequence of The DAO hard fork. However, the truth is that the new chain created in 2016 was Ethereum as it is the one that introduced the manual changes that caused the divide in the ecosystem.
Indeed, ETH and ETC were one chain when it was launched on July 30 2015, and then, on July 20 2016, Ethereum separated from the mainnet, ETC.
Section: Introductory Text
CoinDesk Statement:
Ethereum Classic is a blockchain that was created after a contentious hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain took place in 2016.
Like Ethereum, it supports smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps). Its native asset is referred to as ethereum classic or ETC.
In 2016, blockchain startup slock.it built and launched a decentralized autonomous organization, dubbed The DAO, on the Ethereum blockchain. The DAO was intended to serve as a decentralized venture capital fund for projects launched on Ethereum, and approximately 10,000 people invested more than $168 million in the project through a crowdsale.
During the course of the crowdsale, several vulnerabilities were identified in The DAO’s code and it was subsequently hacked. The attacker stole approximately $60 million worth of ether, which amounted to roughly 14 percent of all ether at the time.
After much debate within the Ethereum community, a hard fork was executed on block 1,920,000, which altered Ethereum’s code to return the lost funds to investors. However, some Ethereum nodes objected to the fork on the grounds that it would mean that the blockchain would not be immutable, among other reasons, and decided that they would not run the updated software.
These nodes continued to run and mine the pre-fork version of the Ethereum blockchain, which is now known as Ethereum Classic.
In January 2019, Ethereum Classic suffered a 51 percent attack, meaning that a miner (or miners) gained control of the majority of computing power on the network, allowing them to stop or reverse transactions on the blockchain and double-spend coins.
Our Corrections and Additions:
Ethereum Classic and Ethereum were one blockchain that was created between 2014 and 2015, and launched on July 30 2015.
After a contentious hard fork in 2016, Ethereum split from the unchanged mainnet, ETC.
Like Ethereum, ETC supports smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps). Its native asset is referred to as ether or ETC.
In 2016, blockchain startup slock.it built and launched a decentralized autonomous organization, dubbed The DAO, on the unified Ethereum blockchain. The DAO was intended to serve as a decentralized venture capital fund for projects launched on Ethereum, and approximately 10,000 people invested more than $168 million in the project through a crowdsale.
During the course of the crowdsale, several vulnerabilities were identified in The DAO’s code and it was subsequently hacked. The attacker stole approximately $60 million worth of ether, which amounted to roughly 14 percent of all ether at the time.
After much debate within the Ethereum community, a hard fork was executed on block 1,920,000, which introduced an irregular state change to Ethereum to return the lost funds to investors. However, some Ethereum developers, nodes, and miners objected to the fork on the grounds that it would mean that the blockchain would not be immutable, among other reasons, and decided that they would not run the updated software.
These nodes continued to run and mine the pre-fork version of the Ethereum blockchain, which is now known as Ethereum Classic.
In January 2019, Ethereum Classic suffered a 51 percent attack, meaning that a miner (or miners) gained control of the majority of computing power on the network, allowing them to stop or reverse transactions on the blockchain and double-spend coins.
Rationale:
In the first few lines we clarify that ETC and ETH were both one chain in the beginning and that in 2016 it was Ethereum the one that split from the mainnet, ETC.
Ethereum Classic is the original untampered blockchain. Ethereum contains a manual reversal of transfers of funds from The DAO hacker to the original investors.
ETC’s native asset is “ether” just as in Ethereum. The difference is that the ticker used by exchanges is “ETC” instead of “ETH”.
The technical event that happened during The DAO hard fork was an irregular state change, not a change of code.
Those who did not follow the irregular state change on the grounds that it would violate immutability were developers, nodes, and miners. Again, they maintained and perpetuated the original untampered chain.
The rest of the content is correct in this section.
Section: Launch and Issuance
CoinDesk Statement:
Ethereum Classic launched in July 2016. ETC was distributed at a 1:1 ratio for all holders of the Ethereum blockchain’s original currency, ETH, after the fork. This meant that the Ethereum Foundation automatically became a large holder of ethereum classic, though it subsequently sold the majority of its coins. Additionally, it is notable that the hacker of The DAO holds approximately 3.4 million ETC, which represents approximately 4% of the supply.
Our Corrections and Additions:
Ethereum Classic and Ethereum launched as a unified blockchain in July 2015. Then Ethereum split in 2016, so ETH was distributed at a 1:1 ratio for all holders of the ETC and ETH previously unified blockchain’s original currency, ether, after the fork. This meant that the Ethereum Foundation automatically became a large holder of the legacy Ethereum Classic, though it subsequently sold the majority of its coins.
Additionally, it is notable that the hacker of The DAO holds approximately 3.4 million ETC in the original chain, Ethereum Classic, which represents approximately 2.3% of the supply.
Rationale:
ETC and ETH were one chain originally. Then, ETH separated from the mainnet and took the name and token symbol. ETH holders kept the same ether holdings on both chains. The hacker of The DAO still holds approximately 3.4 ETC which represent more or less 2.3% of the total supply as ETC supply is now more or less 146,000,000.
That the Ethereum Foundation kept a large holding of ETC in the original chain is correct, and using the term “legacy chain” to refer to ETC is very correct.
Section: Network Design & Security Model
CoinDesk Statement:
Ethereum Classic’s code is an implementation of the original Ethereum blockchain, however the project is not static and continues to develop and change. Whereas, Ethereum will eventually transition from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake mechanism, Ethereum Classic forked its code in 2018 to retain its proof-of-work model.
Our Corrections and Additions:
Ethereum Classic’s protocol is the implementation of the original Ethereum blockchain, however the project is not static and continues to develop and change. As an EVM blockchain, ETC mostly is up-to-date with the Ethereum EVM standard. Whereas, Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake mechanism, Ethereum Classic forked its code in 2018 to retain its proof-of-work model. This fork consisted in eliminating what was called the “difficulty bomb” which was a mechanism to force the Ethereum blockchain to migrate to proof of stake.
Rationale:
As the legacy blockchain, Ethereum Classic’s protocol is the implementation of the original Ethereum blockchain.
As ETC is an EVM blockchain it usually updates its protocol and code to be in technical parity with ETH.
The fork in 2018 by ETC was to eliminate a device called the “difficulty bomb” that would have forced the ecosystem to migrate to proof of stake. This is what cemented proof of work as the stable consensus mechanism in ETC.
Section: Monetary Policy/Cryptoeconomics
CoinDesk Statement:
Ethereum Classic’s block reward was initially set at 5 ETC and decreases by 20 percent every 5 million blocks (roughly every 2.5 years). ETC is a deflationary currency with a total supply that is not expected to top 230 million coins.
Our Corrections and Additions:
Ethereum Classic’s block reward was initially set at 5 ETC and decreases by 20 percent every 5 million blocks (roughly every 2 years as the block time in that blockchain is 13 seconds). ETC is a deflationary currency with a total supply that is not expected to top 210,700,000 coins.
Rationale:
The only details we corrected here are that, as the block times in ETC are 13 seconds, then its block reward discount takes place every 2 years. The total supply of ETC will be less than 210,700,000 ETC.
Section: Transaction Processing
CoinDesk Statement:
The block time for Ethereum Classic is roughly 10 to 15 seconds, with an average of 6 transactions processed per block.
Our Corrections and Additions:
The block time for Ethereum Classic is roughly 13 seconds, with an average of 225 transactions processed per block, or 17 transactions per second.
Rationale:
In this section we corrected block statistics for ETC.
Block times for Ethereum Classic are 13 seconds on average.
With the current 8 million gas limit, its daily transaction capacity is 1,5 million.
As ETC produces 6,646 block per day, this means it processes 225 transactions per block.
If we divide 225 transaction per block by 13 seconds, it is 17 transactions per second.
Section: Coding
CoinDesk Statement:
Ethereum Classic is an open source project to which developers can contribute in a variety of programming languages, including Javascript, Python, Go and HTML.
Our Corrections and Additions:
Ethereum Classic is an open source protocol project to which developers can contribute in a variety of programming languages, building clients in programming languages including Go, Python, Java, Javascript, .Net, Rust, etc.
Rationale:
What is open source is the ETC protocol, just like in Ethereum. Then, developers, like in Ethereum, may use that open source protocol to build clients in the languages of their preference. Those clients may or may not be open source.
Thank you for reading this article!
To learn more about ETC please go to: https://ethereumclassic.org
