Quite often, hard forks tend to cause divide within the crypto community. Perhaps one of the most controversial forks was that of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash back in August 2017. Now the conversation is turning to Ethereum Classic (ETC), which has a fork scheduled for this upcoming Monday, March 5. Many investors are hoping this fork will help raise the current price of Ethereum Classic, which at the time of writing is hovering at $30.
Why the Hard Fork is happening
The Ethereum Classic team released details on the fork — known as the Callisto network project — in January. Callisto (CLO) is meant to solve a number of problems currently present in Ethereum Classic.
- Due to the number of past hacks, CLO developers believe there are issues concerning the smart contract design of ETC. Developers are certain Callisto will be capable of offering better security.
- Callisto is introducing a “cold staking protocol” which will reward coin holders for being network participants. Currently, there is no incentive for coin holders of ETC, which leaves a negative effect on the “store of value.”
- Miners currently have an unfair advantage in the ETC network.
- There is a lack of governance system.
In other words, the purpose of Callisto is to experiment with protocols, set up a governance system, and solve blockchain scaling issues. While originally interpreted as a hard fork, Callisto is actually a sidechain, or blockchain split. In this respect, it is more similar to Bitcoin Gold or Bitcoin Diamond.
What’s next for Ethereum Classic
As previously announced by the Ethereum Classic team, current ETC holders will be able to receive CLO in a ratio of 1:1 according to the amount of ETC held at block 5,500,000. While the snapshot depends on the ETC block time and hashrate changes, it is expected to occur on March 5.
For now, there is no information regarding whether exchanges will be supporting the Callisto drop. However, taking the effects of past forks into consideration, many are hoping Callisto will result in good news for Ethereum Classic and give it the push it needs to test new highs.
