Recently, we’ve been giving Ethereum a bit of a hard time. Much in the same way that Bitcoin has been forked, so has Ethereum. The competing chain is known as Ethereum Classic, as it followed the original chain after the split. However, it hasn’t been progressing too well either, it would seem.
For those unaware, Ethereum split into two after an exploit was found in the DAO. This caused many people to lose money initially. To combat this, Ethereum chose to reverse the chain. Those who didn’t want this option chose to carry on mining the original chain, and so the chains split into two separate entities.
Those with a cynical nature have accused Ethereum Classic of being a coin under the hegemony of Barry Silbert. In recent weeks, I have written a few articles asking some questions for the Ethereum community regarding some of the worries I have for the project going forward. However, with the recent news of Ethereum Classic losing one of its main development teams, things are not looking too rosy. Recently, the ETCDEV team went as far as to ask on Twitter whether people would help to donate money. On the ETCDEV website, they have already set up a donation address. Currently, the total amount of donations in fiat is $60. Since that tweet, there seems to have been little appetite from the community to help them increase their holdings.
Ethereum Classic is currently sitting at just above $4, some way off of Ethereum at over $100. As well as this, the community aspect of ETC seems to be lacking some steam, as evidenced by the paltry donation total. Those who criticise Ethereum for certain technical aspects surely can criticise those similar issues in ETC. Further to this, the progress made by Ethereum with scaling, whilst slow, is still progressing. I have not seen much news personally (and this may be my own fault) to suggest that ETC is truly progressing.
Silbert is another member of the crypto community with many fingers in many altcoins. This can stretch his focus and harm those projects that can truly have legs. If I’m to be fully honest – and again, I could well be wrong – I really do not see a future for Ethereum Classic. Now that most of the fork issue has been buried in the past, those who continue to like the Ethereum project may as well jump back on-board with ETH.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.