On December 11, 2017, at block 5,000,000, the Ethereum Classic network activated the Gotham hard fork — implementing ECIP-1017's fixed monetary policy and beginning Era 2 of the emission schedule.
What Changed
| Parameter | Before (Era 1) | After (Era 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Block reward | 5 ETC | 4 ETC |
| Uncle reward | 0.15625 ETC (1/32) | 0.125 ETC |
| Era | 1 | 2 |
| Activation block | — | 5,000,000 |
The 20% reduction from 5 ETC to 4 ETC per block marked the first "fifthening" — the beginning of ETC's deflationary emission curve.
Technical Details
Gotham implemented:
- ECIP-1017: Block reward reduction to 4 ETC per block, with proportional uncle/nephew reward reductions
- ECIP-1010: Difficulty bomb delay, removing the inherited Ethereum difficulty bomb that would have made mining progressively harder
Why "Gotham"
ETC network upgrades are named after locations in fiction and mythology, distinguishing them from Ethereum's naming conventions. Gotham was the first upgrade with a distinctly ETC identity.
Significance
This was ETC's first monetary policy event — proving that the community could coordinate a protocol change through the ECIP process and activate it across the network without incident. Every ~2.5 years thereafter, the block reward reduces by another 20%.
Era Timeline
| Era | Block Range | Reward | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 – 5M | 5 ETC | Jul 2015 |
| 2 | 5M – 10M | 4 ETC | Dec 2017 |
| 3 | 10M – 15M | 3.2 ETC | Mar 2020 |
| 4 | 15M – 20M | 2.56 ETC | Apr 2022 |
| 5 | 20M – 25M | 2.048 ETC | May 2024 |