Definition: Ethereum Classic

The original Ethereum network, which is still active. In 2016, one year after Ethereum's origin, a hack made $50 million in ETH tokens disappear from a venture capital project known as "The DAO." In order to resurrect the lost tokens, previous transaction history had to be changed, and because "tamperproof" is a major tenet of blockchains, Ethereum split into two camps. The revised blockchain that resurrected the tokens retained the ETH symbol and became the dominant platform.

The unchanged Ethereum continued as Ethereum Classic with the ETC token symbol. The value of ETC is a fraction of ETH. See Ethereum and Ethereum hard fork.

A Major Split in 2016

Ethereum before September 2022 is sometimes incorrectly called Ethereum Classic. See Ethereum 2.0.