What Is Ethereum Classic (ETC) and How Does It Work?
Ethereum Classic (ETC) is an open-source, decentralized blockchain platform that preserves the original
Ethereum ledger, unaffected by the 2016
DAO-hack reversal, upholding the principle that “code is law." It runs
smart contracts and decentralized applications on a global network of nodes via the Ethereum Virtual Machine (
EVM), with each operation priced in “
gas” paid in ETC.
Network security and transaction validation rely on Ethash proof-of-work: miners race to solve
cryptographic puzzles, bundle transactions into blocks, and earn newly minted ETC plus fees, ensuring immutability and trustlessness without any centralized authority.
When Was Ethereum Classic Coin Launched?
The Ethereum platform first went live as “Frontier” on July 30, 2015, under the stewardship of Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Anthony Di Iorio, Charles Hoskinson, Joseph Lubin and the Ethereum Foundation. In June 2016, a vulnerability in The DAO smart contract was exploited, draining some 3.6 million ETH. The community split over whether to roll back the chain. At block 1,920,000 on July 20, 2016, roughly 80% of nodes activated the hard fork to restore stolen funds, creating two chains. The original, unaltered ledger rebranded as Ethereum Classic (ETC) on that date, embodying its “code is law” ethos.
While ETC is a direct continuation of the pre-fork Ethereum chain (with its original founders listed above), its ongoing development is driven by a decentralized community of core developers and contributors, notably through the Ethereum Classic Labs and independent client teams (e.g., Core-Geth, Mantis).
Beyond technical upgrades, the ETC roadmap emphasizes:
1. Defusing the Difficulty Bomb to cement Proof-of-Work
2. Standardizing EVM interoperability for cross-chain
dApp compatibility
3. Community tooling (e.g., the Emerald wallet) and broader
DeFi & supply-chain use cases
This evolutionary path positions Ethereum Classic as the leading long-term Proof-of-Work smart-contract platform, preserving
immutability and “code is law.”
How Is Ethereum Classic Different From Ethereum?
Ethereum Classic (ETC) and
Ethereum (ETH) share a common origin but diverge sharply in protocol philosophy and monetary policy. ETC preserves the original proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism and enforces a hard cap of around 210 million coins, reflecting its “code is law” ethos and commitment to immutability; new blocks are validated by miners solving Ethash puzzles, and no major changes, such as fee burning or staking, are imposed without community consensus. In contrast, ETH migrated to proof-of-stake (
PoS) in 2022 (the Merge), eliminating mining in favor of
validators staking ETH; it also features an uncapped supply model and incorporates EIP-1559 fee burning, which dynamically reduces circulating ETH based on network activity.
From an ecosystem standpoint, Ethereum has evolved into the premier smart-contract platform, powering thousands of DeFi protocols,
NFT marketplaces, and enterprise solutions, buoyed by a market capitalization approaching $230 billion as of May 2025. Ethereum Classic, by contrast, maintains a smaller, niche developer community that values chain immutability above rapid feature roll-outs; ETC’s market cap stands near $2.5 billion as of May 2025, and while it supports many EVM-compatible dApps, its network activity and developer throughput remain significantly lower than Ethereum’s.
What Are the Key Use Cases of ETC Coin?
Ethereum Classic underpins a truly immutable, PoW smart-contract platform used for building and running dApps (from DeFi protocols to NFT marketplaces) and for secure, programmable value transfers, such as supply-chain tracking or cost-efficient cross-border payments.
You can trade ETC on
BingX Spot by funding your account with USDT (or another supported asset), selecting the
ETC/USDT pair under Spot Trading, choosing a
market or limit order, and confirming the transaction.
What Is Ethereum Classic Tokenomics?
Ethereum Classic’s monetary policy enshrines scarcity and predictability through a hard cap and a staged emission schedule. The maximum supply is fixed at 210,700,000 ETC, of which about 151.8 million (≈72%) are currently in circulation.
New ETC are issued via PoW
block rewards under the “5M20” plan: rewards start at 5 ETC per block and
decrease by 20% every 5 million blocks (≈every two years). The most recent reduction (at block 20 000 000 in June 2024) set the reward to
2.048 ETC, yielding an annual inflation rate near
0.5%, a significant decline from the ~4.3% issuance rate before the schedule took effect.
Transaction gas fees are paid in ETC and fully go to miners; unlike Ethereum, there’s no fee-burning mechanism. This predictable, deflationary-aligned issuance coupled with PoW security underpins ETC’s “code is law” ethos and positions it as a scarce, immutable store of programmable value.
How to Mine ETC Coins on Ethereum Classic
Here’s a concise, step-by-step guide to mining Ethereum Classic (ETC):
1. Choose Your Hardware – ASIC miners (e.g. iPollo V1 Mini SE Plus, Bitmain Antminer E9) deliver the highest efficiency and ROI for ETC’s Etchash algorithm. – GPU rigs are still viable if you have cards with ≥ 4 GB VRAM (DAG size ≈ 3.88 GB as of April 2025) but will lose compatibility once DAG grows past your memory limit.
2. Set Up an ETC Wallet: Create or obtain an Ethereum Classic address to receive mining rewards. You can use a non-custodial wallet (e.g. Emerald,
MetaMask with an ETC custom network) or your BingX account’s ETC deposit address.
3. Install Mining Software – For GPUs: download a compatible miner like GMiner or NBMiner with Etchash support. – For ASICs: use the firmware provided by your device’s manufacturer (e.g. Innosilicon, Bitmain) or open-source clients supporting ETChash.
4. Configure Your Miner: Point your miner to a reliable pool. For example, with f2pool:
Pool URL: stratum+tcp://etc.f2pool.com:8118 Worker: <YourETCAddress>.<WorkerName> Password: x
Choose a server region (e.g., etc-asia.f2pool.com for Asia) to minimize latency.
5. Start Mining & Monitor Performance: Launch your mining software. Use your pool’s dashboard (or f2pool app) to track
hashrate, rejected shares, uncle rate, and daily payouts. Adjust power limits or overclocks as needed for stability and efficiency.
Once running, you’ll earn daily ETC rewards directly to your designated wallet address. Happy mining!
What Wallets Support Ethereum Classic Coins?
You can choose from a wide range of
non-custodial wallets to hold your ETC, depending on your security and convenience needs.
Mobile and desktop wallets like
Trust Wallet, MetaMask (configured for ETC), MyCrypto and MyEtherWallet all support ETC out of the box, letting you manage your private keys while interacting with dApps on Ethereum Classic’s EVM-compatible network.
Desktop-first wallets such as Exodus and AlphaWallet also offer intuitive interfaces with built-in portfolio tracking and exchange integration, while
hardware wallets like
Ledger Nano S/X and Trezor Model T provide the highest level of offline security for larger ETC holdings.
If you prefer a custodial solution, you can securely store ETC in your BingX wallet. Simply deposit ETC to your BingX account to take advantage of its integrated hot- and cold-storage architecture, 24/7 customer support, and seamless access to spot trading, staking, and other exchange services.
What Are the Fees and How Fast Are the Ethereum Classic Network Transactions?
Transactions on Ethereum Classic are confirmed roughly every 13 seconds; each new block appears in about 13 s, and most services consider 30 confirmations (≈6.5 minutes) sufficient for settlement. Gas fees on ETC are very low, averaging just ~0.000058 ETC per transaction (≈$0.001 USD), since blocks are lightly utilized compared to larger networks. Fees go entirely to PoW miners with no burn mechanism, and typical daily throughput sits around 20,000–22,000 transactions, giving you inexpensive, near-real-time transfers.
What Makes Ethereum Classic Unique?
Ethereum Classic is unique in that it preserves the original Ethereum ledger in its unaltered form, refusing to roll back the DAO hack, thereby enshrining the “code is law” ethos and delivering truly censorship-resistant smart contracts via its PoW consensus and capped-supply “5M20” issuance schedule. Its network enables trust-minimized dApps on an EVM-compatible chain while upholding strict immutability and a deflationary-aligned monetary policy, distinguishing ETC as a scarce, unstoppable platform for programmable value.
Is Ethereum Classic Secure and Safe to Use?
Ethereum Classic is secured by the Ethash/ETChash proof-of-work consensus, underpinned by a global network of miners whose combined hash rate recently surpassed 300 TH/s, up from sub-50 TH/s a few years ago, as stranded Ethereum miners migrated to ETC after the Merge, significantly bolstering security against attacks. However, like all PoW chains, it remains theoretically vulnerable to 51% attacks if a single entity controls a majority of hashrate, a risk realized during successful double-spend attacks in January 2019 and August 2020, so ongoing network upgrades (e.g., the Thanos ETChash fork) and diversified mining participation are critical to maintaining its safety.