The Ethereum Classic community opened formal review of the Olympia network upgrade — the most significant protocol change proposed for ETC since its founding. The upgrade introduces EIP-1559 dynamic fee markets, a non-inflationary treasury mechanism, and an on-chain governance framework.
The Olympia ECIPs
The upgrade is defined across multiple Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals:
ECIP-1111: Olympia Network Upgrade
The meta-ECIP that activates the upgrade at a specified block height. It bundles the individual protocol changes into a single coordinated activation, ensuring all nodes upgrade simultaneously.
ECIP-1112: Olympia Treasury Contract
Defines an immutable, non-custodial smart contract that receives redirected base fees from EIP-1559 transactions. Unlike the original EIP-1559 design where base fees are burned, Olympia redirects them to fund public goods development. The treasury contract has no admin keys and no upgrade mechanism — funds can only be disbursed through the governance process.
ECIP-1113: Olympia DAO Governance Framework
Establishes a modular on-chain governance system for managing treasury funds. The framework defines proposal submission, voting mechanisms, and execution processes. Governance decisions are enforced by smart contracts, not by social consensus among off-chain parties.
ECIP-1114: ETC Funding Proposal Process (ECFP)
Standardizes the lifecycle for funding proposals — from submission through review, voting, and disbursement. This creates a transparent, repeatable process for allocating treasury resources to development, infrastructure, and ecosystem growth.
Non-Inflationary Design
A critical design decision: Olympia does not create new tokens. Miners continue to receive their full block rewards and priority fees (tips). Only the base fee — which EIP-1559 would otherwise burn — is redirected to the treasury. This means the monetary policy established by ECIP-1017 remains unchanged: the 210.7 million ETC supply cap is preserved.
Review Process
The ECIPs were published in Draft status, opening a formal review period for the community to evaluate the proposals. Core developers, miners, node operators, and community members were invited to provide feedback through the standard ECIP process.
Testing Plan
The upgrade targets deployment on the Mordor testnet before mainnet activation, allowing thorough multi-client testing across Core-Geth, Besu, and Fukuii — the three ETC client implementations preparing Olympia support.