Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a decentralized, open-source blockchain network and a cryptocurrency. It supports smart contracts, letting developers create dApps directly on the chain.

It launched in 2016 after disagreements over ideology and technical approach within the Ethereum community, following the widely known DAO attack. As a result, the original Ethereum blockchain split: Ethereum Classic stayed as the original chain, while Ethereum became the newer one.

The DAO attack affecting Ethereum Classic took place in June 2016. Attackers took $50 million in funds, and a split was carried out to return the stolen assets to their original owners. That decision produced a fork, so both chains continue to exist. The later network, Ethereum, uses ETH (ether), while the earlier chain, now called Ethereum Classic, uses ETC.

What are ETC key features and how does it work?

Ethereum Classic and Ethereum are alike in many core capabilities. For instance, developers can work with the open-source code to build and run decentralized applications, and ERC-20 tokens can be created to support those applications.

That said, Ethereum Classic is notably different because it does not work with any ETH updates. It cannot adopt upgrades or changes that are applied on Ethereum. This is tied to the hard fork that created the split: by nature, a hard fork is a backward-incompatible change. With a new ruleset in place, the new chain-and its nodes-are effectively separated from the original chain. 

Because of this, Ethereum Classic can be viewed partly as an ideological project, and partly as a record of the Ethereum network’s history.

What can Ethereum Classic be used for?

The network has security challenges, influenced in part by its earlier events and the reputation that followed. These security worries may discourage developers from deploying smart contracts on Ethereum Classic for large-scale financial and real estate transactions or projects.

A separate issue is Ethereum Classic’s scalability limitations. On average, the network processes about 15 transactions per second, which is much lower than centralized payment systems like Visa, and also below some other decentralized blockchain networks. Even with past software upgrades, payment scalability remains one of its toughest obstacles, so available use cases are relatively narrow.

In practice, ETC is used by Ethereum Classic participants to pay the gas fee needed to carry out transactions on the network. 

Where can you buy ETC?

You can buy Ethereum Classic on many major CEXs and DEXs, as listed here.