For many years, there has been a noticeable phenomenon in the cryptocurrency community. That is, whenever a certain currency rises, many investors pour in, and then the market will fluctuate violently. And this phenomenon is not accidental, it has become a rule that has lasted for many years. Among this pattern, one currency is particularly prominent, and it is ETC - Ethereum Classic, which is nicknamed the "Doomsday Chariot".
As a veteran player of ETC, NPC has battled wits with it for many years, but has never been able to profit from it. Whenever NPC goes long on ETC, it immediately falls; and when he tries to go short, ETC rises rapidly. 2021 is the highlight moment of ETC. Its price once soared to US$180, causing heavy losses to many air forces. Since then, NPC has never touched ETC again, admitting that he really cannot play with this currency.
So, how did the current ETC come into being? The story starts in 2016. At that time, THE DAO project used Ethereum for crowdfunding, but unfortunately, more than $60 million of Ethereum was stolen. In order to recover these stolen coins, the Ethereum community decided to implement a hard fork. The new chain after the fork became the current ETH, and the old chain before the fork was abandoned. However, some determined miners still chose to continue mining on the old chain. They believed that the code is the law and should not be changed at will once it comes into effect.
Just when the old chain was in danger, Poloniex, the world's largest Ethereum trading platform, took the lead in announcing the start of trading the old version of Ethereum. In order to distinguish it from the new version of Ethereum ETH, the old coin was codenamed ETC (Ethereum Classic). Since then, ETC has gained circulation value, and although the price is extremely low, it still attracts some investors and miners who are willing to take risks.
The emergence of ETC has sparked heated debate in the Ethereum community. Some believe that ETC, as a more purely decentralized system, will eventually win, while others firmly believe that ETH, which is supported by the majority and core developers, represents the future.
So why is the price difference between ETH and ETC so big? This is mainly because ETC survived in hardship, and its price was once very low. At the same time, people who own ETH also own the same ETC, but those who support ETH (such as the Ethereum Foundation) continue to sell their ETC to maintain the status of ETH. Another group of people firmly believe that ETC is a truly decentralized product, so they insist on buying ETC. This disagreement has led to the current situation where two Ethereum coins coexist.
In terms of technical mechanism, ETH has been completely transformed into POS mechanism, while ETC sticks to POW mechanism, emphasizing the fairness of coins generated by mining machines. The founder of ETC also needs to mine to get coins, which can better reflect the concept of universal participation in bookkeeping and universal witnessing. Even if the founder is gone and the exchange stops trading, these coins generated by graphics cards and pure CPU mining still have certain value, because in the hearts of every miner, they are priceless.
As for which of ETH and ETC has more potential in future development, this is still a controversial topic. Both have their own advantages and face different challenges. ETC sticks to the original intention of decentralization, while ETH has more advantages in technology upgrades and partners. Which one will win in the end depends on the development of the market and the choice of investors.
