What is Ethereum Classic (ETC)?
Most people in the cryptocurrency sphere are aware of Ethereum in one way or another. This is the second best-known crypto network after Bitcoin and was launched in 2015 to update and revolutionise decentralised blockchain technology. However, Ethereum Classic (ETC) is not quite so well-known or understood.
Ethereum Classic is the result of the split in the original blockchain that occurred back in 2016 when the Ethereum network was barely a year old. The split was executed due to a hacking incident in which cyber criminals stole ETH tokens from a set of smart contracts hosted on the network. This incident was a major issue for the Ethereum community and led to significant disagreement about what to do next. Eventually, it was decided that the Ethereum blockchain should be forked, with one fork seeking to reverse the theft and move on from there, while the other fork continued on the original blockchain. The first fork is now known as Ethereum (ETH), while the second fork, on the original chain, is Ethereum Classic (ETC).
It's important to remember that Ethereum Classic is the network rather than the cryptocurrency itself. Ethereum supports several cryptocurrency forms, but its native currency is Ether, which is used to power the network. This is true of both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, but Ether on the Ethereum network has the code ETH, while the Ethereum Classic Ether currency is ETC. When you buy Ethereum Classic Ether (ETC), you may notice that the price is slightly different to that of ETH.