Era … → Era … Fifthing

Under ECIP-1017, Ethereum Classic reduces its block reward by 20% every 5,000,000 blocks — an event called a fifthing. This creates a predictable, verifiable emission curve that makes ETC progressively more scarce over time without any human intervention.

Each era lasts approximately 2 years at 13s average block time. The 20% reduction compounds across eras: Era 1 started at 5 ETC per block, and each era is exactly 80% of the previous. The total ETC supply asymptotically approaches ~210.7M ETC — a fixed, knowable ceiling.

Unlike Bitcoin's 50% halving, ETC's gentler 20% reduction extends miner viability longer while still enforcing scarcity. The emission schedule is encoded directly in the protocol — immutable and automatic.