Ethereum Classic Upgrade Removes Scaling Difficulty from Original Code

The new upgrade for the Ethereum Classic (ETC) has now been successfully implemented. The improvement will make sure that mining will maintain its relative practicality in the future, Cointelegraph reported.

The fork, or protocol change, is called ECIP-1041. Its implementation causes the removal of what’s known as the “Difficulty Bomb” feature, a piece of the original Ethereum (ETH) code created to scale the difficulty of mining to the point that process of calculations will render it at a glacial pace.

This feature is the catalyst responsible for the forking of ETC to a Proof-of-Stake (POS) algorithm. Also known as the Ethereum Ice Age, the bomb is poised to halt block validations since the exponential difficulty of solving calculations will require more computing power from mining rigs.

The Ethereum Classic separated from the original Ethereum blockchain in 2016 because of the dispute over how to solve the DAO hack that happened on June 18, 2017. The attacker stole 3.6 million Ether estimated to value at $70 million, with the infiltration lasting a few hours. There were two main vulnerabilities exploited by the hacker.

“First is the smart contract sent the Ether and then updated. Secondly, The DAO coders had also failed to consider the possibility of a recursive call that could act in such a way,” Coincodex explained.

As a result, a hard fork was proposed to reimburse investors who lost money in the attack. However, there were multiple arguments that surfaced within the ranks of those involved. To solve this, a vote was cast by Ether holders, where 89 percent of them favored the hard fork.

As for the recent protocol upgrade, the ECIP-1041 will not result in an AirDrop – basically the awarding of coins to existing holders – nor will another cryptocurrency be created. And amidst all of these, the Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake argument still continues to polarize the crypto community.