What is Ethereum Classic (ETC)?

  Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a cryptocurrency, a blockchain, and a world computer.

It is a cryptocurrency because it has a coin called Ether or ETC, trading as $ETC, with a fixed monetary policy and a capped supply of 210,700,000 coins, making it suitable not only for global permissionless payments, but also for use as a store of value.

ETC is a blockchain because it is a network of machines around the world that follow a censorship-resistant protocol to manage a database containing accounts and balances, and accept new blocks of transactions every 15 seconds to transfer funds from one account to another.

It is a world computer because it also stores decentralized programs, called smart contracts, which can be used to power unstoppable applications or dapps.

Architecture

To achieve the above functions, ETC has an Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) with more than 120 opcodes that are replicated in all network nodes, making it a decentralized virtual machine. This component enables participating computers to execute decentralized software programs stored in the blockchain ledger.

Decentralized software programs or smart contracts are written in a software language called Solidity, which encodes them using the opcodes of the EVM so that they can be executed within the system.

One ​​of the great inventions of Ethereum Classic is the gas system, which is a model that specifies a number of units, called gas, for each opcode, so users can pay these units for participating machines to execute them. This approach solves several problems such as spam, pause problems and miner compensation, making smart contracts possible in a decentralized peer-to-peer network.

Differences from Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that is blockchain-only and whose only function is to maintain accounts and balances. This makes it like a pocket calculator compared to Ethereum Classic.

However, Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin are similar in that they both use Satoshi Nakamoto's key invention, namely proof of work.

The full name of this system is "Nakamoto Consensus Based on Proof of Work", and it consists of a subset of network machines (called miners) performing a function called mining, which requires a lot of computing work and electricity consumption. The result of this work is a cryptographic stamp, which is added to the block of transactions, hence the name "blockchain", which is produced at specific time intervals and then sent to the rest of the network to take them as the latest state of the system.

Nakamoto Consensus achieves something that was previously impossible, that is, computers in the network, no matter where in the world they are and who they belong to, can reach a consensus on the latest state of the network in a decentralized manner without permission or supervision.

Differences from Ethereum

There are four things that define the difference between Ethereum Classic and Ethereum (ETH).

ETC is the original chain, ETH is a fork:When Ethereum was launched in 2015, Ethereum Classic and Ethereum were both one chain, but in 2016 there was a dispute called TheDAO, which caused Ethereum to split from the mainnet. Since then, they have been two independent networks, ETC follows a very conservative high-security philosophy called code is law, and Ethereum follows a more adventurous philosophy called weak subjectivity, which aims to make it more scalable.

ETC is proof of work, ETH is proof of stake:Ethereum migrated from proof of work to proof of stake, which is less secure but more scalable, so this is more in line with their philosophy. ETC has always adhered to and will always adhere to proof of work, so this means it is truly decentralized, permissionless, and immutable.

ETC has a fixed monetary policy, while ETH does not:ETC has a fixed monetary policy very similar to Bitcoin, with a cap of 210,700,000 coins, making it programmable digital gold. Ethereum does not have a fixed monetary policy, they have changed it six times since its inception, and the supply will be uncertain in any given year.

ETC is censorship-resistant, while ETH is not:As miners who produce blocks, they include new transactions in the proof-of-work blockchain. Because they are not financial providers, and because they can move from one place to another and mine anonymously, they can include all transactions sent to the network from anywhere within the block, and do not have to comply with financial regulations or international sanctions. Ethereum's shareholders are largely regulated financial institutions in Western countries, who must comply with local and international restrictions and sanctions, which makes Ethereum a network that is primarily subject to censorship, as they are obliged to exclude transactions from certain sanctioned accounts.

Security vs Scalability Tradeoff

As mentioned above, Ethereum Classic is highly secure because it uses proof of work and full replication of the database as its consensus model. In fact, ETC is the world's largest and most secure smart contract blockchain. This makes it the best choice for a base layer blockchain system because it can be used to solve and high-value, low-volume use cases.

Since proof of work cannot achieve scalability in the form of high transaction volume, then ETC may have other systems at a higher level that can handle larger transaction volumes, but inside ETC. This design is the most popular design in the industry to achieve scalability, such as the Lightning Network as Bitcoin's Layer 2 and rollup as Ethereum's Layer 2.

Dapps in the secure environment of the blockchain

As the world's largest and most secure smart contract network, ETC has one thing that makes it unique. Unlike Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin (the other large proof-of-work blockchain in the world), ETC is programmable smart contracts. This means that dapps exist in its highly secure environment.

If to program Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin or use applications on them, the software programs must be hosted in a central server, enterprise data center, or cloud service, then what is the use of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin?

In ETC, the backbone of dapps can be trust-minimized just like money, which makes ETC a unique and valuable system for truly secure applications and use cases.

Known for the “Code is Law” principle

As mentioned in this article, the three pillars of Ethereum Classic are that it uses proof-of-work as a consensus mechanism, it has a fixed supply, and it supports smart contracts.

The three pillars in its design and structure implement the principle of "code is law" because ETC is concrete and tangible decentralized, immutable, and permissionless.

Due to these characteristics, ETC has the advantages of survivability, censorship resistance, and unstoppability, and is therefore non-negotiable and non-capturable.