The Ethereum Classic hardfork was successfully completed at block number 10,500,839. The halving took place on May 31, 2020, three days earlier than the Labs’ estimated time.
The latest Ethereum Classic hardfork marks the completion of the ETC-ETH parity. The hardforks were aimed to introduce interoperability with the main Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The Phoenix hardfork is third in its series and is preceded by Atlantis and Agharta hardforks that took place on September 13, 2019, and January 12, 2020.
Ethereum Classic hardfork: Why is it important?
The Phoenix hardfork is a system-wide upgrade that is the product of consensus between the members of the ETC ecosystem. Similar to its previous two forks, the upgrade boosts the interoperability between the main Ethereum blockchain and the Ethereum Classic network.
The Phoenix update will make the ETC network fully compatible with the Ethereum blockchain for the first time since the network split in July 2016.
The Ethereum Classic network is the original unforked Ethereum blockchain. The network was created in June 2016 to deal with the aftermath of the DAO attack.
The DAO was a revolutionary smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain that would have acted as a venture capital firm to fund all future DApps on the Ethereum blockchain. If any user wanted to have a say in the direction that the DApp he would have to buy DAO tokens.
Past and future developments on ETH
In June 2016, some users exploited a loophole in the DAO code to steal one-third of the funds and move them into a subsidiary account.
The Ethereum community decided to hardfork the network to erase the DAO theft. However, due to disagreements between the community, the network was split into two blockchains; with the unforked blockchain maintained as Ethereum Classic and having its own native cryptocurrency.
The latest Ethereum Classic hardfork will implement the Ethereum network’s Istanbul protocol upgrades on the ETC blockchain and also add codes that exist on the Ethereum network since the Instanbul upgrade.
