Ethereum Classic Difficulty Bomb Fork (May 2018)

Ethereum Classic is doing a fork in May to remove a difficulty bomb that would stop new ETC from being created down the road. No new coins are created from this fork, it is just a software update. The fork will occur at block 5,900,000.^[1]

In other words, this is an update to the software which removes in a built-in difficulty bomb that would effectively prevent coins from being mined (as part of a “monetary policy” Ethereum Classic has been rolling out since 2017).

This is a fix, but not a chance to get free ETC via an airdrop; it isn’t that kind of fork.

This is good to know since excitement over a fork can sometimes lead to the price of a coin being bid up due to the erroneous idea that “fork” always means “free coins.”

Ethereum Classic is a solid project with a solid token, and the fork is a step toward keeping the software viable for years to come, but don’t confuse all that with a fork that creates “free coins.”

This ECIP new monetary policy of Ethereum Classic proposes removing Difficulty Bomb from Ethereum Classic Mainnet at block 5,900,000 in order to avoid collapse of the network. The growing Difficulty Bomb above 20% of standard difficulty is dangerous, and the latest safe block to enable new hardfork would be 6,100,000 with 550Gh of extra difficulty. Although considering the hardfork boundaries proposed by Ethereum Classic developers, block 5,900,000 was chosen for the hardfork.

– Hype.Codes’s article on the ETC fork.

Difficulty Bomb Removal Hardfork Upgrade | No Airdrops!

– Geth > v5.0.0 https://t.co/ibfYLZc0py

– Mantis > v1.1 https://t.co/9aSbyhFc3z

– Parity > v1.9.3

Geth and Mantis just updated, sync speeds ultra fast⚡️#EthereumClassic #ClassicIsComing pic.twitter.com/QTtNzCC1NA

— Ethereum Classic (@eth_classic) May 14, 2018

1. Ethereum Classic to Remove the Difficulty Bomb via Fork Difficulty Bomb will be removed from Ethereum Classic Mainnet at block 5,900,000 in order to avoid collapse of the network. Hype.Codes.