Ethereum Classic History

Network Upgrades

Every ETC network upgrade follows the same process: ECIP specification, independent client implementation, testnet validation, and mainnet activation. Olympia brings EVM alignment to Fusaka with EIPs spanning London, Dencun, Pectra, and Fusaka.

Frontier

Block 1Jul 30, 2015

Genesis block — the Ethereum network launches.

Initial network launchGas limit of 5,000 per blockProof-of-Work consensus

Frontier Thawing

Block 200,000Sep 7, 2015

Increased gas limit from 5,000 to enable meaningful transactions and contract deployment.

Gas limit increaseDifficulty bomb introducedEnabled contract deployment

Homestead

Block 1,150,000Mar 14, 2016

First major planned upgrade — EIP-2, EIP-7, EIP-8.

EIP-2 (transaction validity rules)EIP-7 (DELEGATECALL opcode)EIP-8 (devp2p forward compatibility)

DAO Fork (Rejected)

Block 1,920,000Jul 20, 2016

Ethereum forked to reverse the DAO hack. ETC rejected the irregular state change and continued the original chain.

ETC continued the original unaltered chainEthereum Classic identity establishedCode is law principle preserved

Gas Reprice

Block 2,500,000Oct 24, 2016

EIP-150 — repriced I/O-heavy opcodes for DoS protection after the Shanghai attacks.

EIP-150 (gas cost increases for I/O operations)DoS attack mitigationCALL gas cost increase

Die Hard

Block 3,000,000Jan 13, 2017ECIP-1015

Replay protection and difficulty bomb delay — the first ETC-specific hard fork.

EIP-155 (replay protection)EIP-160 (EXP gas cost increase)Difficulty bomb delay

Gotham

Block 5,000,000Dec 11, 2017ECIP-1017

ECIP-1017 monetary policy — established the 210.7 million ETC supply cap with era-based emission reduction.

Fixed monetary policy (supply cap ~210.7M ETC)Era-based emission reduction (20% per era)Five million block eras

Defuse Difficulty Bomb

Block 5,900,000May 29, 2018ECIP-1041

ECIP-1041 — permanently removed the difficulty bomb from ETC, ensuring stable block times.

Difficulty bomb permanently removedStable block times preservedNo forced upgrade pressure

Atlantis

Block 8,772,000Sep 12, 2019ECIP-1054

Aligned ETC with Ethereum's Spurious Dragon and Byzantium upgrades.

EIP-100 (difficulty adjustment)EIP-140 (REVERT opcode)EIP-196/197 (bn256 precompiles)EIP-198 (MODEXP precompile)+2 more

Agharta

Block 9,573,000Jan 12, 2020ECIP-1056

Aligned ETC with Ethereum's Constantinople and Petersburg upgrades.

EIP-145 (bitwise shifting)EIP-1014 (CREATE2)EIP-1052 (EXTCODEHASH)EIP-1283 (net gas metering)

Phoenix

Block 10,500,839Jun 1, 2020ECIP-1088

Aligned ETC with Ethereum's Istanbul upgrade.

EIP-152 (Blake2b precompile)EIP-1108 (bn256 gas reduction)EIP-1344 (CHAINID opcode)EIP-2028 (calldata gas reduction)+1 more

Thanos

Block 11,700,000Nov 28, 2020ECIP-1099

Halved the DAG size epoch length, enabling consumer GPUs to continue mining ETC.

Etchash algorithm (modified Ethash)DAG epoch length doubled (30,000 → 60,000)GPU mining accessibility preservedASIC resistance maintained

Magneto

Block 13,189,133Jul 23, 2021ECIP-1103

Aligned ETC with Ethereum's Berlin upgrade.

EIP-2565 (ModExp gas cost)EIP-2718 (typed transactions)EIP-2929 (gas cost increases for state access)EIP-2930 (access lists)

Mystique

Block 14,525,000Feb 12, 2022ECIP-1104

Aligned ETC with Ethereum's London upgrade (excluding EIP-1559 and EIP-3529).

EIP-3198 (BASEFEE opcode, no-op)EIP-3541 (reject new 0xEF contracts)EIP-3529 excluded (kept full SELFDESTRUCT refund)EIP-1559 excluded (deferred to Olympia)

Spiral

Block 19,250,000Feb 5, 2024ECIP-1109

Aligned ETC with Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade (execution layer changes only).

EIP-3651 (warm COINBASE)EIP-3855 (PUSH0 instruction)EIP-3860 (limit/meter initcode)EIP-6049 (deprecate SELFDESTRUCT)

Olympia

TBDECIP-1111 ECIP-1112 ECIP-1121

EVM alignment to Fusaka — EIPs spanning London, Dencun, Pectra, and Fusaka. Introduces EIP-1559 fee market with basefee directed to protocol treasury.

EIP-1559 dynamic basefee (directed to treasury)EVM parity with Ethereum FusakaEIPs from London, Dencun, Pectra, FusakaProtocol treasury funding mechanism+1 more

Olympia UpgradeBlock number to be announced on the Olympia Community Developer Calls