Ethereum Classic has experienced two 51% attacks in the past two years, suggesting low overall network security. As the network hash rate continues to decline, future 51% attacks become a greater possibility as the cost for an attack also continues to decline.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is a distributed ledger and decentralized computing platform with smart contract capabilities, created in 2016 by forking the original Ethereum (ETH) project. The crypto asset is currently 21st on the Brave New Coin market cap table, with a market cap of US$765 million and US$110 million in trade volume over the past 24 hours. The ETC/USD spot price is down 86% from the all-time high set in mid-January 2018.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) continues to have previous Ethereum (ETH) developments added to its main-net, after implementing Atlantis in April 2019, and Agartha in January 2020. The next protocol upgrade, Phoenix, is set to be implemented in June this year.

The Ethereum Classic block reward was recently reduced by 20%, but still remains higher than the Ethereum block reward.

Technicals for both the ETC/USD and ETC/BTC pairs suggest the potential for an early bearish trend. Until spot prices are once again above both the 200-day EMA and Cloud for both pairs, a bearish trend is more likely than a bullish trend.

In April, the ETC Labs dev team released ECIP-1054, Atlantis, which enabled the Spurious Dragon and Byzantium network protocol upgrades currently active on the ETH network. The protocol changes increased interoperability between the ETC and ETH chains. Atlantis was successfully implemented on the main-net on September 12th. The Constantinople protocol changes will be included in Agharta, ECIP-1056, set for launch on block 9,573,000, or approximately January 13th.

Despite the successful implementation of Atlantis earlier this year, the development of the Ethereum Classic (ETC) chain remains several months behind Ethereum (ETH), with very little activity over the past six months.

Atlantis was successfully implemented on the Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain earlier this month, bringing more compatibility with Ethereum (ETH). However, development on the ETC chain remains several months behind ETH, with very little activity over the past six months.

Technicals for the ETC/USD pair suggest a strong bullish trend, based on daily Cloud and high timeframe moving averages. Prices above the psychological resistance of US$10 should see significant bullish momentum.

Technicals for both ETC/USD and ETC/BTC suggest a potential end to the multi-month bear trend on both pairs. ETC/USD rose 144% from the December 2018 lows, in spite of a 51% attack.

Following a successful 51% attack on the Ethereum classic network, confidence in the security of the blockchain has been battered, particularly with the threat of secondary attacks still looming over the network. While network usage has remained constant through the bear market, there is some evidence that this activity may not be organic and lacks true economic value.

The ETH vs ETC debate began over a matter of principle regarding the immutability of the blockchain, as well as speculators and miners seeking an opportunity to profit from a forked chain. ETC has continued to survive and begun to thrive after the removal of a difficulty bomb which threatened to shut down the network entirely.