Hard Fork Spec Announced
Jul 15, 2016
The only remaining option is a controversial Hard Fork. A Specification is determined and announced by Slock.it and Ethereum Foundation members.
Last Minute Carbonvote
Jul 15, 2016
With 12 hours notice, The Ethereum Foundation use a controversial third party 'coin vote' to determine that the Hard Fork should be turned on by default; consensus is declared, and an updated client is released.
The DAO bailout
Jul 20, 2016
On 20 July 2016, as a result of the exploitation of a flaw in The DAO project's smart contract software, and subsequent theft of $50 million worth of Ether, the Ethereum network split into two separate blockchains – the altered history was named Ethereum (ETH) and the unaltered history was named Ethereum Classic (ETC).
- The new chain with the altered history was branded as Ethereum (code: ETH) with the BIP-44 Coin Index 60 and EVM Chain ID 1 attributed to it by the trademark-owning Ethereum Foundation. On this new chain, the history of the theft was erased from the Ethereum blockchain.
- Some members of the Ethereum community ignored the change and continued to participate on the original Ethereum network. The non-fork chain with an unaltered history continued on as Ethereum Classic (code: ETC) with the BIP-44 Coin Index 61 and EVM Chain ID 61.
Block 1,920,000
The first Ethereum Classic block that was not included in the forked Ethereum chain was block number 1,920,000, which was generated by Ethereum Classic miners on 20 July 2016
New Fork Chain - Block 1,920,001
Jul 20, 2016
A forked-chain is born! The Ethereum Foundation creates an altered version of Ethereum on July 20 2016 to reverse the DAO theft. As trademark rights holders, the Ethereum Foundation applies the Ethereum (ETH) brand to the new forked chain.
Original Non-Fork Chain - Block 1,920,001
Jul 20, 2016
With predictions of the original non-forked chain to disappear within hours, many are surprised to find that miners continue to support the original chain. Bisq and OTC desks give these tokens a price discovery order book. The markets participants rebrand this non-forked chain Ethereum Classic (ETC).
Mission Accomplished
Jul 20, 2016
The ETH community lets out a sigh of relief as the DAO fork code is successfully implemented with no obvious flaws; champagne corks are popped all over the globe. The birth of a new chain is a success!