Ethereum Classic

Ethereum Classic is a Layer 1 proof-of-work blockchain launched on 30 July 2015 that supports smart contracts and decentralized applications, making it a general-purpose programmable settlement network. It emerged from a 2016 dispute over how to respond to a major hack on the original Ethereum chain, with its supporters choosing to preserve the original, unaltered transaction history under the principle that blockchains should be immutable. It aims to serve developers and users who want a censorship-resistant platform where the historical record cannot be changed by community consensus alone.

Ethereum Classic uses the Ethash proof-of-work consensus algorithm, meaning miners compete to solve computationally intensive puzzles to produce and validate blocks, earning newly issued ETC as a reward. ETC is the native token used to pay for computation on the network, denominated in units of gas, and it is required by anyone submitting a transaction or deploying a smart contract. The circulating supply currently stands at approximately 158.8 million ETC against a maximum supply of 210.7 million, of which roughly 75.4 percent has already been issued.

Fees on Ethereum Classic are paid by users who submit transactions or interact with smart contracts, and they are collected by miners who process those transactions. Over the trailing 12 months the network generated 8,074.34 USD in fees, with 877.27 USD collected over the trailing 30 days and 47.63 USD over the trailing 7 days; the annualized figure extrapolated from the 30-day period is 10,673.45 USD. These are very small absolute numbers relative to the network's market capitalization of approximately 1.27 billion USD, which is reflected in a market-cap-to-annualized-fees ratio of 120,913.92 and a fee yield of 0.000827 percent. Fee volume declined 51.93 percent over the trailing 30 days.