Ethereum Classic ETC: Hard Fork

Ethereum Classic team is doing a hard fork in May 2018 to remove the difficulty bomb from the Ethereum Classic Mainnet at block 5,900,000. This is being done as, unlike Ethereum, the ETC team has no plans to migrate to PoS and that is why the Difficulty Bomb needs be removed to avoid collapse of the network. If the team does not removes it, the mining will become unprofitable by September 2018 so it is a wise move. Mining Difficulty grows exponentially every 100,000 blocks by factor of 2. It was paused by ECIP-1010 from block 3,000,000 to block 5,000,000.


With continued growth at the block 6,500,000, which is scheduled for September 2018, the mining of Ethereum Classic chain will become unprofitable.

In order to remove the formula that removes difficulty bomb, it is important to a hard fork. Block 5,900,000 expected at May 2018 and will require 137Gh of additional difficulty. It’s an optimal block under current circumstances.

For the geeks, this code will be used to implement the hard fork.

if (block.number >= diffuse_block) {
extra_difficulty = 0
} else {
explosion = PREVIOUS_FORMULA
extra_difficulty = int(2**explosion)
}

block_diff = parent_diff
+ parent_diff / 2048 * max(1 – (block_timestamp – parent_timestamp) / 10, -99)
+ extra_difficulty