About
Ethereum Classic is a decentralized public blockchain that preserves the original, unaltered history of the Ethereum codebase after the controversial Ethereum hard fork in 2016. The split occurred following the DAO hack, when part of the Ethereum community chose to reverse the hack via a hard fork while another faction maintained that code should be immutable. Those who upheld this principle continued on the original chain, which became known as Ethereum Classic. This foundational philosophy commonly summarized as “Code is Law” remains central to Ethereum Classic’s identity.
The network supports smart contracts via the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), making it compatible with Ethereum tooling, libraries, and decentralized applications. This compatibility allows developers to deploy and interact with Solidity-based contracts much like on Ethereum itself, but on a chain that prioritizes stability, security, and resistance to arbitrary changes. Ethereum Classic’s conservative upgrade path is designed to ensure that the chain continues to function predictably across market cycles without centralized intervention.
In contrast to Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake, Ethereum Classic continues to use a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, secured by miners using computational power to validate transactions and secure the network. The blockchain enforces a fixed maximum supply of approximately 210.7 million ETC, with a defined emission schedule that gradually reduces block rewards. This predictable monetary policy and digital scarcity model are intended to support long-term value retention and align with sound money principles.
ETC serves as the native asset and utility token of the Ethereum Classic network. It is used to pay for transaction fees, incentivize miners, and participate in decentralized applications operating on the chain. Beyond basic transactions, ETC enables a broad range of programmable financial primitives including decentralized exchanges, lending markets, and automated strategies that run directly atop the network’s base layer.
