Chapter 1: Ethereum Classic
The feature of smart contracts (scripting) is included in Ethereum Classic, which is a blockchain-based distributed computing platform that is open source. It enables a customized version of the Nakamoto consensus to be implemented using transaction-based state changes that are carried out on a public Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
The history of the Ethereum network is preserved in its entirety and in its original form by Ethereum Classic. During a process referred to as "mining," which verifies computations carried out on Ethereum Classic's EVM, network nodes are rewarded with ethereum when they successfully complete the procedure. The current monetary policy for ETC, which was implemented on December 11th, 2017, tries to achieve the same objectives as bitcoin, namely being mechanical, algorithmic, and capped. ETC may be traded for other assets, commodities, currencies, goods, and services, as well as the transaction fees associated with using the network.
The Ethereum Virtual Computer (EVM), which is provided by Ethereum Classic, is a decentralized, Turing-complete virtual machine that, by using a global network of public nodes, is able to carry out the execution of scripts. In contrast to other instruction sets, such as bitcoin script, the instruction set of the virtual machine is Turing-complete. Gas is a transaction price mechanism that is utilized on the network internally. Its primary functions are to reduce spam and distribute resources.
Before the official launch of the Frontier network, the Ethereum Foundation produced a number of unnamed prototypes of the Ethereum platform as a part of its proof-of-concept series. These prototypes were used in preparation for the introduction of the Frontier network. After the DAO scandal, the Ethereum classic network continued to use this codebase.
The vulnerability in the smart contract software used by The DAO project was exploited on July 20, 2016, resulting in the subsequent loss of Ether valued at fifty million dollars' worth.
The Ethereum Foundation, which is the owner of the trademark, assigned the BIP-44 Coin Index 60 and the EVM Chain ID 1 to the newly created chain that had the revised history. This chain was given the brand name Ethereum (code: ETH). The history of the heist was removed from the Ethereum blockchain when it was switched over to this new chain.
Some participants in the Ethereum community choose to disregard the update and carry on working on the platform's precursor, the original Ethereum network. The chain that did not split and maintained its original history carried on as Ethereum Classic (code: ETC), and it was assigned the BIP-44 Coin Index 61 and the EVM Chain ID 61.
On May 28, 2016, a document was published that detailed security issues in the DAO. These vulnerabilities potentially enable Ether to be taken from the DAO. Peter Vessenes made a public announcement on June 9, 2016, that a significant security flaw known as a recursive call problem was present in a large number of Solidity contracts but was not being properly addressed. On June 12, 2016, Stephan Tual made a public statement stating that the DAO money were secure despite the recently revealed significant security hole in the system.
On July 15, 2016, there was a vote conducted on-chain with little notice over the DAO hard fork.
Block number 1,920,000, which was produced by Ethereum Classic miners on July 20, 2016, was the first block that was not included in the chain that was split from Ethereum. This block was the first one that was excluded.
The "Difficulty Bomb" is a method that was created to exponentially increase the difficulty of mining in order to transition the Ethereum chain away from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism and toward the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in the future. On block 200,000, a modification known as "Ice Age" was applied to the network, which resulted in the addition of this Difficulty Bomb. During the time when players in Ethereum Classic were debating the effectiveness of the Difficulty Bomb, a network upgrade known as "Die Hard" was implemented at block 3,000,000 to postpone the mechanism's impact. As soon as the users of the network reached a decision about the matter, Ethereum Classic updated its network on block 5,900,000 in order to defuse the Difficulty Bomb in a manner that is irreversible. This resulted in the network being committed to the proof-of-work consensus process rather than continuing on with a future that included proof-of-stake.
In an effort to bring the Ethereum Classic protocol up to date, a number of protocol changes were planned to allow capabilities that the Ethereum network has previously enabled during the course of the preceding years. Atlantis, which was activated in September 2019, enabled the outstanding Byzantium changes. Agharta, which was activated in January 2020, brought Ethereum's Constantinople patches. Phoenix, which was activated in November 2020, finally achieved protocol parity between Ethereum Classic and Ethereum with the introduction of the Istanbul protocol upgrade. Since the activation of the Phoenix protocol, apps running on the Ethereum Classic network and the Ethereum Foundation network are now completely cross-compatible with one another.
After a series of 51 percent attacks on the Ethereum Classic network in 2020, the community discussed the possibility of implementing a change to the underlying Ethash mining algorithm. This would prevent Ethereum Classic from being a minority proof-of-work chain in the Ethash mining algorithm, which is currently dominated by Ethereum. It was eventually decided to double the Ethash epoch duration from 30,000 to 60,000 in order to reduce the size of the DAG and prevent Ethash miners from easily switching to Ethereum Classic. This decision was reached after evaluating a number of different options, such as Monero's RandomX or the standardized SHA-3-256. There are a several names for this upgraded version of Ethash, including ETChash and Thanos upgrade.
As is the case with other cryptocurrencies, the veracity of each ether is guaranteed by a blockchain. A blockchain is a continually expanding list of records that are referred to as "blocks." These blocks are connected to one another via the use of encryption, which ensures their safety. In contrast to Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic functions by maintaining accounts and balances via a process referred to as state transitions. This does not depend on any transaction outputs that have not yet been spent (UTXOs). The current balances of all accounts as well as any additional data are denoted by the state. Instead of being recorded on the blockchain, the state is kept in a separate Merkle Patricia tree. A cryptocurrency wallet is used to store the "keys" or "addresses" that may be used to receive or spend Ether. These "keys" and "addresses" can be public or private. These may be constructed using mnemonics in the form of BIP 39 for a "HD wallet" according to BIP 32. Because Ethereum does not use a UTXO system, this step is not required in the Ethereum technology stack. It is possible to write on the blockchain using the private key, which will result in an ether transaction being successfully completed.
It is necessary to have the Keccak-256 hash of the public key associated with the account to which Ether is to be sent. Ether accounts are considered to be pseudonymous due to the fact that they are not connected to identifiable individuals but rather to a single or several addresses.
ETC is a crucial asset for the functioning of Ethereum Classic, which, as a result, offers users a public distributed ledger on which they may record and verify their transactions. Gas is a unit of computation that is used in transactions and other state changes. This currency is used to pay for Gas. Although it may be referred to as ether within the context of Ethereum Classic, one must be careful not to mistake it with ETH, another cryptocurrency that is also known as ether.
It is traded on cryptocurrency exchanges under the currency symbol ETC and is listed on such exchanges.
and the Greek uppercase Xi character (?) is generally used for its currency symbol.
On the Ethereum Classic network, it is also used for the purpose of paying transaction fees and for the provision of computational services.
The prefix "0x," which is a standard identifier for hexadecimal, is appended to the end of Ethereum Classic addresses. Additionally, the rightmost 20 bytes of the Keccak-256 hash (big endian) of the ECDSA public key are included in Ethereum Classic addresses (the curve used is the so-called secp256k1, the same as bitcoin). Because each byte is represented by two digits in hexadecimal, addresses are made up of a total of 40 hexadecimal digits. A typical address for Ethereum Classic might look something like this: 0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268. Contract addresses always use the same format, but their values depend on the sender as well as the nonce that is associated with the formation transaction. If we simply have an address for each kind of account and none of the blockchain data, user accounts and contract accounts are indistinguishable from one another. Any legitimate Keccak-256 hash that is placed into the format that has been described is valid, even if it does not correlate to an account that has a private key or a contract. This is because the format has been validated. Bitcoin, on the other hand, makes use of base58check to validate whether or not addresses have been input correctly.
Through the implementation of the Gotham hard fork update on December 11th, 2017, a hard limit of ETC 210,700,000 was placed on the total amount of Ether on Ethereum Classic. This resulted in the addition of a deflationary...
