What Is Ethereum Classic?

After the merge, there will be no more mining for Ethereum (ETH).

The leading altcoin has done away with its proof-of-work consensus mechanism and switched to proof of stake, so it no longer requires crypto miners.

But the miners are still well stocked with expensive crypto mining rigs, and they’re looking for a new gig. One of the biggest destinations for their skills is Ethereum Classic (ETC).

Let’s take a closer look at how Ethereum Classic compares with Ethereum now that the merge is complete and these two cryptos have gone their separate ways.

What Is Ethereum Classic?

One of the key attributes of cryptocurrencies is that they run on open-source software.

With open-source software, the community collaboratively develops and maintains the code. It’s shared publicly—and it’s not the property of any single person or company.

Contrast this ethos with the approach of Big Data giants like Google or Facebook, which develop proprietary code that cannot be publicly shared.

The open-source nature of crypto gives rise to the possibility that a blockchain may be “forked.” This is when a crypto community decides to make major changes to the codebase, which leads to the crypto’s blockchain—and its supporting community—being split in two.

Ethereum Classic was produced by a fork of the original Ethereum blockchain. Like many other blockchain forks, ETC was created following an ideological and technical divide within the community.

After the fork, the resulting blockchains included identical past blocks, but they diverged going forward. They share a common past but are now two different cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum Classic and the DAO

The fork that produced ETC took place in 2016 after a project known as the DAO—decentralized autonomous organization—launched on Ethereum.

The DAO was backed by $150 million in crowdfunding, but there was a flaw in the code. Because of the flaw, hackers stole $50 million from the DAO.

Due to the size of the hack, some in the Ethereum community proposed that the ETH blockchain should be reversed to compensate the exploited users. Others argued that this would set a worrying precedent and that blockchain should be immutable by its very nature.

A vote was held to settle the disagreement, and the pro-fork side received more than 85% of the votes. The ETH blockchain was forked, and the minority side maintained the original, unaltered Ethereum blockchain, christening it Ethereum Classic.

Ethereum vs. Ethereum Classic

Ethereum and Ethereum Classic are pretty…