{"id":629,"date":"2019-03-16T14:59:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T14:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/?p=629"},"modified":"2019-03-16T14:59:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T14:59:11","slug":"ethereum-classic-the-ungoverned-blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/ethereum-classic-the-ungoverned-blockchain\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethereum Classic: The Ungoverned Blockchain?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does anything get done if there are no leaders? Why hasn\u2019t ETC died by being abandoned by the Ethereum Foundation after TheDAO hard fork? The ecosystem of participants and stakeholders working in and around the ETC network is examined in outline below.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

So, where and how does ETC \u201cgovernance\u201d happen?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Making changes to Ethereum Classic consensus rules is \u201cungoverned\u201d in a similar way to Bitcoin and Ethereum with little appetite for large numbers of consensus-breaking upgrades. Currently it is an ad hoc<\/em> process where ECIP proposals are raised on Github, discussed in public\/semi-public fora and should they be widely supported without contention locked-in to the nominally canonical \u201cClassic-Geth\u201d client with the other clients (Parity Labs\u2019 eponymous software and IOHK\u2019s Mantis) merging in response. In the case of a contentious proposed upgrade some arbitrary signalling criteria could potentially be set (i.e.<\/em> % of miners upgrade\/signal, on-chain carbon vote<\/a> as used by ETH to justify DAO hard fork) though this has not occurred in ETC since the events which led to the creation of the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Source: <\/strong>https:\/\/medium.com\/@TokenHash\/the-star-improvement-proposal-standard-for-ethereum-classics-ecip-process-df20453de8e6<\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
On-chain \u201cCarbon Vote\u201d for TheDAO fork on Ethereum. Source: <\/strong>https:\/\/elaineou.com\/2016\/07\/18\/stick-a-fork-in-ethereum\/<\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As with other networks based on the original Ethereum design, some parameters such as adjustments to the gas limit per block\u200a\u2014\u200arestricting the amount of EVM computation in a similar way to block size \/ weight in Bitcoin-derived networks\u200a\u2014\u200acan be enacted in small increments on a per block basis via miner signalling. There is currently some discussion to motivate a decrease in the gas limit per block in order to avoid the chain growth rate issues which make running ETH full nodes a challenge in terms of burdensome resouce requirements. The likely aggregation of ETC hashrate among a small number of big mining farms, cooperatives and pools presents issues with reliance on miner signalling, as recently evidenced in Bitcoin when the merge-mined EVM Rootstock sidechains went live with 80% of network hashrate signalling. The naive downstream adoption of \u201cdefault\u201d Ethereum settings such as ETH\u2019s 8 million gas limit per block is also a potential issue for ETC\u2019s ungovernance to navigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
ETC Gas Limit versus Block Height. Source: <\/strong>http:\/\/etcsummit.pllel.com<\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two hard fork network upgrades have taken place in the ETC network\u200a\u2014\u200aECIP-1010<\/a> to remove the \u201cdifficulty bomb\u201d and ECIP-1017<\/a> to institute a supply cap with asymptotic supply curve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision-making process could be better organised, more transparent and clearly defined and refinements to the ECIP process are currently being discussed. At present most informal community discussion takes place on ETC\u2019s Discord server, with ECIPs themselves posted on the nominated Github account (ethereumclassic<\/a>) following a power struggle and takeover of the previous canonical Github account (ethereumproject<\/a>), ostensibly related to the situation with ETCLabs discussed below. ETCLabs appear to be preparing to implement their own proposed parallel \u201cECLIP\u201d improvement proposal scheme though this may be a mis-communication rather than a \u201cconsensus hostage situation\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200asituation is unclear at time of writing. Below are a few links to recent discussions and proposals relating to how Ethereum Classic reaches decisions relating to network upgrades and changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethereum Classic (ETC): Putting Together the New Decentralized ECIP Process<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ethereumclassic\/ECIPs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some stakeholders in ETC want to see closer collaboration with ETH, some are ambivalent and others are opposed. The recent announcement of Bob Summerwill<\/a> as ETC Cooperative Executive Director is noteworthy as he was instrumental in founding the Enterprise ETH Alliance, was involved in the Ethereum Foundation, was a senior figure at Consensys. There are some existing collaborative projects between ETH and ETC, including Akomba Labs\u2019 \u201cPeace Bridge<\/a>\u201d to allow cross-chain transactions, Kotti<\/a> unified PoA testnet and some recent discussions<\/a> regarding ETC considering the adoption of aspects of the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last few months have seen a change in the composition of the ecosystem around Ethereum Classic, as a the previously pre-eminent privately funded core development team \u201cETCdev\u201d collapsed due to lack of funds with another entity \u201cETCLabs\u201d forming a new developer team \u201cETCLabs Core\u201d with significant overlap of personnel. Some community members have described the sequence of events as a corporate takeover attempt<\/a>, others do not seem so worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ETC community is still small and, in this bear market, lacks funding from volunteer investors or other sources to initiate new core maintenance and development projects or pay new core developers quickly. This is because there are no leaders, foundations, pre-mines, treasuries, protocol taxation or any other financing gimmicks that so much contaminate other centralized projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

ETC History and Network Characteristics<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Ethereum blockchain launched on 30th July 2015. When the Ethereum Foundation conducted a hard fork as part of TheDAO\u2019s exploit recovery<\/a> (\u201cirregular state transition<\/a>\u201d) on July 20th 2016, they kept the name and ticker symbol Ethereum \/ ETH. The canonical chain branch in which TheDAO exploiter kept their spoils survived against most observers expectations and attracted community, developer, exchange and mining support<\/a>. The unforked chain<\/a> came to be known as Ethereum Classic<\/a> (ETC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is pure Proof of Work utilising the Ethash (Dagger Hashimoto) algorithm. It is the second largest network using this algorithm, marshalling approximately 15\u201325x times less hashrate than Ethereum (ETH). Due to its situation as a minority PoW network without 51% attack mitigations at the protocol or node levels it has been deemed to be vulnerable to thermodynamic attacks<\/a> and this has been observed recently<\/a>. Mining is permissionless so the identities and extent of participation of block producers are not necessarily known. Some network and blockchain analysis of the ETC mining ecosystem is being undertaken currently. There is a high degree of suspicion that covert FPGA and\/or ASIC mining was employed leading to the recent majority attacks. Most of the hashrate employed in the recent attacks is suspected to be of exogenous origin to the existing Ethash ecosystem and marketplaces such as Nicehash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethereum\u2019s whitepaper was first circulated in late 2013 and there was a \u201ctoken crowdfunding\u201d (= ICO) in 2014. Approx 72 million of the 105 million supply<\/a> issued were distributed in the ICO. Mining providing block and uncle rewards has distributed the remainder. Work is ongoing currently to compare the movement of balances either side of the ETC\/ETH fork. Inflation was set to \u201c5M20\u201d, reducing mining rewards by 20% every 5 million blocks which corresponds to approximately 5% annual supply increase. The same hard fork in 2017 (ECIP-1017<\/a>) also installed a fixed supply cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethereum \u201cbecame\u201d Ethereum Classic because the Ethereum Foundation asserted intellectual property rights over the \u201cEthereum\u201d name despite branching away from the canonical chain. This is still a point of contention and some prefer the name \u201cETC\u201d as a subset of stakeholders look for alternative nomenclature to \u201cClassic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

How are Development and Ecosystem Activities Funded in ETC?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

What is the reference node implementation?
<\/em><\/strong>This is also a bone of contention in ETC. When ETCdev ceased operation, the hitherto canonical client Classic-Geth<\/a> written in Golang stopped being reliably maintained. ETCLabs Core maintains Multi-Geth but not all stakeholders in the ETC ecosystem are currently comfortable using their software given their ostensible desire to have an independent ECLIP<\/a> improvement proposal pathway which appears more hard-fork than soft-fork oriented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there any other full node implementations?
<\/em><\/strong>Parity Labs maintains their Parity client<\/a> written in Rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IOHK maintains their Mantis client<\/a> written in Scala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is client development funded?
<\/em><\/strong>Development is funded by private organisations\u200a\u2014\u200aETCLabs, Parity and IOHK fund client development following the demise of ETCdev. ETC Cooperative (partly funded by DCG\/Grayscale and DFG) also support protocol development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been resistance to adopt an on-chain treasury as proposed by IOHK, some stakeholders see this as inherently centralising but given the collapse of ETCdev due to funding shortfalls and absence of alternative funding models \/ \u201cbuild it and they will come\u201d the status quo is at risk of prolonging a continuing tragic commons scenario. There are some grants and funding opportunities via ETCLabs but at present are focused on business\/startup incubation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most funds are controlled by companies but ETC Cooperative is now a 501(c)(3) non profit based in the USA. There is also a small community fund<\/a> controlled by a multi-signature wallet but there are no current plans to disburse this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other software does the entity(ies) which funds the reference node produce?
<\/em><\/strong>Hard to answer conclusively since there is a lack of agreement over what the reference implementation currently is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parity<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aRust ETH client, Polkadot\/Substrate, Bitcoin client, Zcash client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETCdev<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200adefunct, Emerald application development framework and tools, Orbita sidechains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETC Cooperative<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200adeveloper tooling and infrastructure e.g.<\/em> recent Google BigQuery integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IOHK<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aa lot of software for Cardano, ZenCash, ETC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETCLabs<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200a?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What else do the entities which develop or fund the reference node do? (not software)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parity<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aWeb3 Foundation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETCLabs<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aVC\/Startup incubator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETC Coop<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aGeneral PR, community and ecosystem development, conference organisation, enterprise & developer relations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IOHK\u200a<\/strong>\u2014\u200aPR, summits, art projects (Symphony of Blockchains), academic collaborations, VC partnership and research fellowships with dLab \/ SoSV \/ Emurgo\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DCG\/Grayscale\/CoinDesk<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aPR, financial instruments e.g<\/em>. ETC Trust, OTC trading\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

How is work other than development (e.g. marketing) funded?
<\/em><\/strong>It in unclear how funding and support for non-development activities is apportioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DCG\/Grayscale and DFG fund ETC Cooperative<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DFG funds ETC Labs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Related projects\u200a\u2014\u200aAre there any significant projects which are related? For example, is this a fork of another project? Have other projects forked this one?<\/em><\/strong>
<\/em><\/strong>Ethereum (ETH) was a ledger fork of this project, Callisto (CLO) was a ledger fork of this project. There may have been more minor codebase or ledger forks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Significant Entities and Ecosystem Stakeholders<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETCLabs<\/a> is a for-profit company with VC\/Startup and core development activities funded by DFG, DCG, IOHK and Foxconn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETC Cooperative<\/a> is a 501(c)(3) non profit based in the USA funded by DCG and DFG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETCdev<\/a> (defunct)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IOHK<\/a> (Input Output Hong Kong) is the company led by Charles Hoskinson who previously worked on BitShares, Ethereum and now Cardano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DCG<\/a> (Digital Currency Group) is Barry Silbert\u2019s concern which contains in its orbit Grayscale Investments, CoinDesk, Genesis OTC Trading amongst other organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DFG<\/a> (Digital Finance Group) is Chinese diversified group concerned with investments in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, OTC Trading, Venture Funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Wassim Alsindi directs research at independent laboratory Parallel Industries, analysing cryptocurrency networks from data-driven and human perspectives. Find him at www.pllel.com<\/a> and @parallelind<\/a> on Twitter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does anything get done if there are no leaders? Why hasn\u2019t ETC died by being abandoned by the Ethereum Foundation after TheDAO hard fork? The ecosystem of participants and stakeholders working in and around the ETC network is examined in outline below. So, where and how does ETC \u201cgovernance\u201d happen? Making changes to Ethereum … Continue reading Ethereum Classic: The Ungoverned Blockchain?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,12],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-articles","tag-forkonomy","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9ARiU-a9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":755,"url":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/what-the-forkgov-does-staying-together-tear-you-apart-even-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":629,"position":0},"title":"What the ForkGov! Does staying together tear you apart even more?","author":"pllel","date":"19\/05\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Fork-governance of cryptocurrencies and decentralised networks examined [Note: This text written in January 2019 follows on from \u201cTowards an Analytical Discipline of Forkonomy\u201d and \u201cForkonomy Revisited\u201d and was first included in the Decentralised Thriving Anthology] Fork your mother if you want fork!\u2014 Jihan Who (@JihanWho) 19 January 2019 First, some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Articles\"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/tag\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":139,"url":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wassim-speaks-at-the-ethereum-classic-summit-in-seoul-on-september-12-13\/","url_meta":{"origin":629,"position":1},"title":"Forkonomy and Reaching Everyone head to the Ethereum Classic Summit in Seoul Sep 2018","author":"pllel","date":"01\/09\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":". Wassim speaks at the Ethereum Classic Summit in Seoul, Korea on September 12-13. In addition to a presentation on implications of Forkonomy for ETC, Wassim will also participate in a panel discussion on the topic of censorship resistance and immutability as informed by Reaching Everyone. More information can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Events\"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/tag\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/etcsummitheader-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":445,"url":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/towards-an-analytical-discipline-of-forkonomy-summer-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":629,"position":2},"title":"Towards an Analytical Discipline of Forkonomy (Summer\u00a02018)","author":"pllel","date":"21\/01\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"aka Forkonomy, Blockchains & Time Travel [Note: This work was written and self-published in manuscript form on pllel.com in summer 2018 with last revision 10th August. Figures come from tweets, original manuscript and presentation slides from ETC Summit Forkonomy talk in September 2018. A follow-up commentary is being prepared presently.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Articles\"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/tag\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":554,"url":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wassim-on-lets-talk-etc-podcast-sep-18\/","url_meta":{"origin":629,"position":3},"title":"Wassim on “Let’s Talk ETC” Podcast (Autumn 2018)","author":"pllel","date":"16\/02\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently re-uploaded to our YouTube Channel is a conversation Wassim had with Prof. Christian Seberino of Let's Talk ETC podcast, following his appearance at the 2018 Ethereum Classic Summit. Among the topics covered were Wassim's background, Forkonomy as an analytical lens to understand possible futures of blockchain-archtected networks and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Forkonomy\"","block_context":{"text":"Forkonomy","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/tag\/forkonomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":505,"url":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/article-reaching-everyone-pt-ii-resilience-censorship-resistance-and-the-bitcoin-blockchain\/","url_meta":{"origin":629,"position":4},"title":"Reaching Everyone, Pt. II: Resilience, Censorship-Resistance and the Bitcoin Blockchain","author":"pllel","date":"31\/01\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: Kevin Durkin for In The\u00a0Mesh ICYMI on In The Mesh, read the next parts there first. This article is the second in a four-part series by Matt B (@MattoshiN) and Wassim Alsindi (@parallelind) on the use of Bitcoin and the technology stack built atop it to assist those living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Articles\"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/tag\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":513,"url":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/article-forkonomy-revisited-where-are-they-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":629,"position":5},"title":"Forkonomy Revisited: Where Are They Now?","author":"pllel","date":"31\/01\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"51% of a year has passed, let\u2019s check back in on our plucky and hopeful minority networks. [Note: This is a follow-up commentary after the original\u00a0Forkonomy\u00a0paper (now on\u00a0Hacker Noon) was written and self-published on\u00a0pllel.com\u00a0in summer 2018 with\u00a0last revision 10th August. Figures come from\u00a0#forkonomy tweets, original manuscript and presentation slides from\u00a0ETC\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Articles\"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/tag\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pllel.com\/industries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}