Ethereum Classic is the original Ethereum blockchain that maintained the unaltered transaction history after the 2016 DAO fork. It is a decentralized, Proof of Work smart contract platform with a fixed monetary policy capping supply at approximately 210.7 million ETC. ETC runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), so it supports the smart contracts and developer tooling of Ethereum and other EVM chains, up to Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade.
Open MetaMask, click the network dropdown, then "Add Network." Enter: Network Name: Ethereum Classic, RPC URL: https://etc.blockscout.com/api/eth-rpc, Chain ID: 61, Currency Symbol: ETC, Block Explorer: https://etc.blockscout.com. Alternatively, visit chainlist.org/chain/61 and click "Add to MetaMask" for automatic configuration.
A stuck transaction usually means the gas price was too low or there is a nonce gap. To fix it, send a new transaction with the same nonce but a higher gas price. In MetaMask, you can use the "Speed Up" button on a pending transaction. If that does not work, send a 0 ETC transaction to yourself with the stuck nonce and a higher gas price to clear the queue.
Use the Blockscout explorer at etc.blockscout.com. Paste your wallet address in the search bar to see all transactions, token balances, and contract interactions. Each transaction shows the sender, recipient, amount, gas used, and confirmation status.
ETC is available on major exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and OKX. You can also use decentralized exchanges like ETCswap directly on the ETC network. For fiat on-ramps, Brale offers ACH bank transfers to purchase Classic USD (USC), which you can then swap for ETC on ETCswap.
Hardware wallets (Trezor, Ledger, SafePal), browser extensions (MetaMask), and mobile wallets (Trust Wallet, Exodus, Coinomi) all support ETC. MetaMask requires manual network configuration with Chain ID 61 and RPC URL https://etc.blockscout.com/api/eth-rpc. For long-term storage, a hardware wallet keeps your keys offline.
The ETC ecosystem includes ETCswap (V2 and V3 decentralized exchanges), ETCswap Launchpad (a token launch platform), Classic USD (USC, a stablecoin) and WETC (wrapped ETC, from WrappedEther.org). Every approved dApp is listed on the Apps page at ethereumclassic.com/apps.
Yes. ETCswap V2 and V3 provide automated market maker (AMM) functionality for token swaps and liquidity provision. Classic USD (USC) is a 1:1 USD-backed stablecoin on ETC. WETC (Wrapped ETC) enables ETC to be used in DeFi protocols that require ERC-20 tokens. Liquidity providers can earn trading fees by depositing assets into ETCswap pools.
No. Ethereum Classic uses Proof of Work consensus, not Proof of Stake. There is no native staking mechanism. However, you can earn yield by providing liquidity on ETCswap: depositing token pairs into liquidity pools to earn a share of trading fees. This is sometimes called "liquidity mining", but it is different from PoS staking.
ETC experienced 51% attacks in 2019 and 2020, which led to the adoption of ECBP-1100 (Modified Exponential Subjective Scoring, or MESS), a client-side defense against deep chain reorganizations. Network hashrate grew significantly after Ethereum miners migrated to ETC following the September 2022 Merge, and Core-Geth v1.12.x releases carrying ECBP-1110 switched MESS off by default from the Spiral block in 2024. Because every v1.12 release still carried at least one known vulnerability when Core-Geth v1.13.0 was released, v1.13.0 ships MESS on by default. v1.13.1 turns it off by default again, and a build from source of the main branch already does. Each release sets its own default, and a node operator can set it either way with --mess or --mess=false. Today's hashrate, many times what it was in 2020, makes such an attack far more expensive.
Requirements vary by service: each exchange sets its own, so check its deposit page. For peer-to-peer transactions with known parties, 20 to 50 confirmations (about 5 to 12 minutes) gives reasonable security. Higher-value transactions warrant more confirmations.
Gas is the unit measuring computational work required to execute transactions and smart contract operations on ETC. Every operation (sending ETC, interacting with contracts, deploying code) costs a specific amount of gas. You pay for gas in ETC at a price you set, and a higher gas price gives miners a reason to include your transaction sooner. A simple ETC transfer costs 21,000 gas.
ETC and ETH share the same origin (the Ethereum launch in 2015) and the same virtual machine (EVM). They diverged in July 2016 over the DAO fork. Key differences: ETC uses Proof of Work, ETH uses Proof of Stake. ETC has a fixed supply cap (~210.7M), ETH has no hard cap. ETC has never performed an irregular state change. Both run the same smart contract languages (Solidity, Vyper) and development tools.
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