Ethereum Classic
a.k.a. ETC
The original Ethereum chain that kept running after the 2016 hard fork reversed the DAO hack.
In plain English
The original Ethereum chain that kept running after the 2016 hard fork reversed the DAO hack.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) is what you get when a community refuses to rewrite history. In 2016 a project called The DAO was hacked and millions of ether were drained. Most of the Ethereum community backed a hard fork to return the money; that chain became today's Ethereum.
A minority insisted the chain should stay untouched, "code is law", and kept the original going as Ethereum Classic. It still uses proof of work, and as a smaller chain it has suffered 51% attacks.
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