Ethereum Classic – Ethereum hardfork

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As the name suggests, Ethereum Classic is not a new type of cryptocurrency. Ethereum and Ethereum Classic used the same blockchain until the block 1,920,000. However, the network underwent a hardfork – so Ethereum Classic appeared. 

What is Ethereum Classic?

But why did the hardfork happen? First of all, there was The DAO, a decentralized organization that invested $150 million in the development of Ethereum. However, after the end of the investment campaign, $50 million was seized by an unknown attacker who managed to take advantage of a vulnerability in the blockchain. Still, due to the peculiarities of The DAO smart contract, the hacker couldn’t retrieve the stolen funds for 28 days.

Now, the organization had to decide whether to execute a hardfork to recover the stolen money or do nothing to comply with the principle of non-interference with the blockchain code. Most people chose the first option, and the new branch of the blockchain after the hard fork became known as Ethereum. The part of the community that remained faithful to the “Code is Law” principle preferred to maintain and develop the old branch, which is now known as Ethereum Classic.

What dangers did the spin-off pose?

Two cryptocurrencies own two blockchains. There was a risk that transactions made in the Ethereum blockchain would also be repeated in the Ethereum Classic blockchain. Such repetition occurs without the user’s consent. The scenario is called «Replay Attacks».

Protection by means of new technologies

Ethereum Classic - Ethereum hardfork 2

Popular wallets protect users’ funds from hacker attacks. For example, the developers of the online wallet Ethereum Classic, available at: https://ethereumclassicwallet.com/, are constantly improving the software code, adding new levels of protection, so that the user doesn’t have to worry about the safety of his/her funds.

The Ethereum Classic team also pays close attention to preventing attacks on the blockchain with regular security updates. Of course, there are cases when hackers did manage to find weaknesses in the blockchain code, but each time the Ethereum Classic development team eliminated these vulnerabilities very quickly.

Ethereum Classic market capitalization and exchanges

The maximum number of all coins in circulation is 210,700,000. As of the beginning of Julyl 2022, the number of Ethereum Classic coins in circulation was 135’662’370, which is 64% of the maximum number of coins. The coin’s abbreviation is ETC.

Ethereum Classic can be purchased on well-known cryptocurrency exchanges:

  • Binance
  • FTX
  • Kraken
  • Coinbase

Conclusion

The hardfork of Ethereum created Ethereum Classic. The most famous of all developers, Vitalik Buterin, is committed to Ethereum, not Ethereum Classic. Consequently, it is also significantly smaller in terms of market capitalization.

Nevertheless, Ethereum Classic continues to develop more freely and transparently. First of all, transparency should be a priority. So far, however, the coin’s image on the cryptocurrency scene has not improved, and the capital raised is lacking. The team says there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. So several things could have a positive effect on the project in the future.

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