On the brink of Ethereum’s merge and switch to PoS, there’s been much talk about Ethereum Classic — its popular fork. Let’s see what they have in common and how they are different.     

Ethereum vs Ethereum Classic: What Is the Difference?

Today Ethereum (ETH) is the second most popular cryptocurrency on the market. It was launched in 2015 by Buterin and Lubin. There was a huge “The DAO” hacking event (the DAO run on Ethereum Block) that resulted in the loss of 3.6 million Ether. So, many Ethereum creators decided to make fundamental changes to the project. At the same time, totally quitting the original project was not an option for many. That is why the team decided to create a new blockchain while saving the old one.

Consequently, the crypto known as Ethereum after 2016 is actually a hard fork from the old blockchain now called Ethereum Classic (ETC). But what exactly offers each of the mentioned projects? And if you compare ETH vs ETC, which crypto is better to invest in today? Find out in the article.

What Is Ethereum Classic?

Both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic blockchains were identical right after the split because they are based on the same code. Yet, while ETC had no major changes to the original principles of work, ETH had a few significant developments. So, Ethereum Classic now offers all the features the original Ethereum used to offer.

ETC is still an open-source and blockchain-based cryptocurrency with a high decentralization level. The main feature is the ability to run self-executing smart contracts. Also, ETC preserves the proof-of-work (PoW) mining algorithm. To run transactions or execute smart contracts on the blockchain, investors pay gas fees.

On average, the blockchain of Ethereum Classic is less powerful than most blockchains, capable of proceeding with hundreds of transactions per minute. Besides, many investors have lost faith in ETC after the mentioned hacker attack.

How Is It Different from Ethereum?

Ethereum Classic remains stable in terms of investor interest and untouchable in technical terms. At the same time, Ethereum has become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market thanks to its developments. Reveal how exactly ETH and ETC differ in 2022:

• The price and market capitalization

ETC cannot compete with ETH when it comes to market indicators. Ethereum’s price fluctuates around $1,700 in August 2022, which is much higher than ETC (near $35). The market capitalization of ETH is also much higher than ETC (near $210 billion against $4.6 billion).

• Coin supply

The number of ETC will never exceed 210,700,000 coins. In contrast, the number of ever-produced ETH coins is unlimited.

• Mining process

Both cryptocurrencies use a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism. But, PoW also leads to limitations in terms of scalability when the trading volume increases. So, ETH resolves this problem by transferring to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms in September 2022. PoS is also considered a more eco-friendly validation system when randomly selected miners to validate transactions.

• Transaction speed

Near 15 transactions per second can be proceeded on both blockchains. Moreover, the faster your transaction, the higher fee you need to pay. But ETC is not going to increase its scalability. Ethereum’s switch to the PoS validation system will increase the transaction speed of ETH to around 100,000 transactions per second. The cost of transactions is expected to decrease instead.

Are There Any Similarities?

The development of Ethereum made it significantly different from Ethereum Classic. Still, some similarities left:

• Decentralized ledger

Both ETH and ETC operate on decentralized ledgers. The idea behind such platforms is that many computers (nodes) around the globe run them instead of a single party.

• Smart Contracts

A very few crypto projects enable smart contracts that mostly are used for building dApps. This feature is common for both Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

• Pseudonymous

Both projects have the same approach when it comes to the preservation of the investor’s personal information. Namely, you will receive a pseudonym once obtaining a wallet (the mix of letters and numbers) that is visible to everyone. But all your personal information will be hidden.

Bottom Line

Even after the comparison of ETH to ETC or, for example, DGB to BTC, it may still be unclear which cryptocurrency is better to invest in. If you value the high liquidity and scalability, it seems that Ethereum should be your choice.

However, in case the original features of Ethereum and a conservative approach to the changes are top priorities for you — Ethereum Classic is a worthy option.