Open Letter to Blockchain Developers: Opportunity to Work on Ethereum Classic

I’m not going to lie to you: Things are tough right now in Ethereum Classic because a single group (DFG/ETC LABS/ETC LABS CORE) with ample funding is controlling a significant share of the ETC ecosystem: they hired and fund the only core development team, fund many startups who build dapps on ETC, and are part of the ETC Cooperativetogether with DCG of Barry Silbert, another large investor in the ETC community.

In general the main economic groups in the ETC ecosystem, DFG, DCG, IOHK and ETC Cooperative, are very coordinated and aligned:

Corporate groups on the ETC Labs home page.
Corporate groups on the ETC Labs home page.
The above photo was taken in February of 2019 in Denver at the ETHDenver conference (notations in red are mine).
The above photo was taken in February of 2019 in Denver at the ETHDenver conference (notations in red are mine).

However, due to this situation I think there is an opportunity for a credible and independent team of good engineers  with sound blockchain principles (volunteering, self funded or VC funded) to enter the ecosystem with a significant prospect for success because the mere presence of such team would balance power in the community, be very welcomed and supported by many, and get a significant chunk of market share in any future open source business related to ETC (e.g. Red Hat or Blockstream style).

I see the way this may be done successfully by such a team would be by:

1. Taking up or starting development of the ETC native client, which is Classic Geth.

2. Taking an active role in managing the ECIP process.

3. Managing the ‘ethereumclassic’ Github organization.

All of those ecosystem resources above are being or have practically been abandoned by DFG/ETC LABS/ETC LABS CORE because they will be working on a different repository, a multi-geth client, and want to have their own resources branded with their name, like in the case of the ECLIP process. No new teams or devs have come voluntarily other than a few individuals on a part time basis, very likely because of the bear market and perhaps because they see ETC as a small and risky network.

However, ETC is a huge opportunity in the blockchain space because of its trust minimization ethos and is sticking to PoW and Turing completeness, which is a unique positioning as Ethereum, Cardano, EOS, Tezos, and the other smart contract chains are all just PoS “decentralization theatre”, in my opinion.

ETC’s huge potential value:

ETC positioning
ETC is the only network with highly secure smart contracts at the base protocol layer. PoS, DPoS and PoA do not belong in base layer consensus security. They can only be useful in L2 solutions for scalability and performance. Security and sound money can be provided by base layer PoW chains.

ETC is the only network with highly secure smart contracts at the base protocol layer. PoS, DPoS and PoA do not belong in base layer consensus security. They can only be useful in L2 solutions for scalability and performance. Security and sound money can be provided by base layer PoW chains.

If you are interested in pursuing this opportunity, please don’t hesitate to contact me as I could help you with some introductions and guiding you in the community, and several others would be very open to welcoming you as well.

Thank you for your attention!


Code Is Law

Author: Donald McIntyre

Read about me here.