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Ethereum Classic3 decisions on this page

Audit log

Every state-changing event for Ethereum Classic: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

  1. #1publishby system:backfill
    2026-05-14 06:02:26Z
    Score: ?? (no score change)
    anchoranchored
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    mainnet-betaslot 419,628,885
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    5cEkiL5UKe88…M22fdcvwexplorer ↗
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    AFEcHdK5UWeH…oK9y6YJosha256 → base58
    verifying row…full verify ↗
    canonical bytes (9770 B) ▸
    {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"2ae2325a-238e-4228-b183-6f8ca733d750","kind":"publish","page_slug":"ethereum-classic","published_at":"2026-05-14T06:02:26.138Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Ethereum Classic","sections":[{"content":"In June 2016, $60M was drained from The DAO via a reentrancy exploit. A July 2016 hard fork at block 1,920,000 reversed the theft, creating Ethereum (ETH). Ethereum Classic preserved the original unaltered ledger. Only 5.5% voter turnout participated in the fork vote.","heading":"DAO Hack and Fork Origin","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Chainlink Blog: DAO Hack","type":"research","url":"https://blog.chain.link/reentrancy-attacks-and-the-dao-hack/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Ethereum Classic - Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum_Classic"}]},{"content":"219,500 ETC (~$1.1M) was double-spent in a 51% attack. Coinbase detected and halted ETC transactions. The ETC team initially denied the attack before confirming it.","heading":"51% Attack — January 2019","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"MIT Technology Review: 2019 Attack","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/08/137908/hackers-just-stole-1-million-from-the-ethereum-classic-blockchain-in-a-rare-51/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Coinbase Blog: 2019 Double Spend","type":"official","url":"https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbases-perspective-on-the-recent-ethereum-classic-etc-double-spend"}]},{"content":"Three separate 51% attacks occurred in August 2020. 3,693, then 4,000, then 7,000+ blocks were reorganized. Approximately 807,260 ETC (~$5.6M) was double-spent. The attacker spent less than $200K in rented NiceHash hashrate.","heading":"51% Attacks — August 2020 Triple Attack","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk: Third 51% Attack August 2020","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/08/29/ethereum-classic-hit-by-third-51-attack-in-a-month"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: $5M Attack","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/37721/hacker-nets-over-5-million-ethereum-classic-51-attack"}]},{"content":"Post-Merge hashrate surged to 300+ TH/s as displaced ETH miners migrated. ETC now controls 90-95% of ETChash hashrate. NiceHash incompatibility post-Thanos upgrade raises the cost of attack substantially.","heading":"Hashrate Security — Current","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Ethereum Classic - Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum_Classic"}]},{"content":"No explicit SEC or CFTC classification for ETC exists. ETC was absent from the March 2026 joint 16-asset commodity list. A 2019 CFTC statement implies commodity-by-analogy to ETH only.","heading":"Regulatory Classification","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"CFTC Press Release 8051-19","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8051-19"}]},{"content":"Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust launched in 2017 with ~$283M NAV as of December 2024. It has historically traded at up to 458% premium and 77% discount. No ETF conversion filing has been identified.","heading":"Grayscale ETCG Trust","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC EDGAR: ETCG 10-K","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1705181/000095017024019124/etcg-20231231.htm"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC EDGAR: ETCG 10-Q Q3 2024","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1705181/000095017024120128/etcg-20240930.htm"}]},{"content":"ETC has no formal foundation. Development proceeds via rough consensus through the ECIP process. ETC Cooperative is the primary funder. Bob Summerwill departed in December 2024. TVL is approximately $150K with ~31,690 daily transactions.","heading":"Developer Activity and Ecosystem","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"ETC Cooperative 2024 Retrospective","type":"official","url":"https://etccooperative.org/posts/2025-03-14-the-etc-cooperative-2024-retrospective-report-en"}]},{"content":"The proposed Olympia upgrade would redirect base fees to a treasury. A Nolympia petition signed by F2Pool, 2Miners, and Antpool opposes it as a miner tax violating core principles. Testnet went live in April 2026 with mainnet targeted for end of 2026.","heading":"Olympia Upgrade Governance Controversy","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Nolympia Petition","type":"other","url":"https://nolympia.dev/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"ECIP-1111 Olympia","type":"official","url":"https://ecips.ethereumclassic.org/ECIPs/ecip-1111"}]},{"content":"A January 2020 'EAgharta' hard fork scam targeted ETC holders. ETC Dev dissolved in December 2018 with allegations of hostile interference by ETC Labs.","heading":"Ecosystem Scams and Incidents","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinTelegraph: Hard Fork Scam Warning","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-classic-cooperative-warns-public-against-apparent-hard-fork-scam"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The Block: Board Member Resignation","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/58953/ethereum-classic-collective-board-member-resigns-withdraws-funding-support"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Chainlink Blog: DAO Hack","type":"research","url":"https://blog.chain.link/reentrancy-attacks-and-the-dao-hack/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Ethereum Classic - Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum_Classic"},{"credibility":1,"name":"MIT Technology Review: 2019 Attack","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/08/137908/hackers-just-stole-1-million-from-the-ethereum-classic-blockchain-in-a-rare-51/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Coinbase Blog: 2019 Double Spend","type":"official","url":"https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbases-perspective-on-the-recent-ethereum-classic-etc-double-spend"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk: Third 51% Attack","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/08/29/ethereum-classic-hit-by-third-51-attack-in-a-month"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt: $5M Attack","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/37721/hacker-nets-over-5-million-ethereum-classic-51-attack"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CFTC Press Release 8051-19","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8051-19"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC EDGAR: ETCG 10-K","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1705181/000095017024019124/etcg-20231231.htm"},{"credibility":2,"name":"ETC Cooperative Retrospective","type":"official","url":"https://etccooperative.org/posts/2025-03-14-the-etc-cooperative-2024-retrospective-report-en"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Nolympia Petition","type":"other","url":"https://nolympia.dev/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinTelegraph: Hard Fork Scam","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-classic-cooperative-warns-public-against-apparent-hard-fork-scam"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The Block: Board Resignation","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/58953/ethereum-classic-collective-board-member-resigns-withdraws-funding-support"}],"summary":"Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the original Ethereum chain that persisted after the 2016 DAO hack hard fork. It has suffered three documented 51% attacks totaling over $7M in double-spend losses (2019 and 2020), has minimal DeFi ecosystem depth (~$150K TVL), and faces unresolved governance controversy over the Olympia treasury proposal. Post-Merge hashrate improvements have raised the cost of attack substantially. Grayscale's ETCG trust is SEC-filed with ~$283M NAV. No explicit SEC/CFTC classification exists for ETC.","timeline":[{"date":"2016-06-17","event":"$60M drained from The DAO via reentrancy exploit","source":"chain.link","source_url":"https://blog.chain.link/reentrancy-attacks-and-the-dao-hack/"},{"date":"2016-07-20","event":"Ethereum hard fork at block 1,920,000; ETC preserves original chain","source":"wikipedia.org","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum_Classic"},{"date":"2019-01-07","event":"51% attack: 219,500 ETC (~$1.1M) double-spent","source":"technologyreview.com","source_url":"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/08/137908/hackers-just-stole-1-million-from-the-ethereum-classic-blockchain-in-a-rare-51/"},{"date":"2020-08-01","event":"First of three 51% attacks in August 2020; 3,693 blocks reorganized","source":"coindesk.com","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/08/29/ethereum-classic-hit-by-third-51-attack-in-a-month"},{"date":"2020-08-06","event":"Second 51% attack: 4,000 blocks reorganized","source":"coindesk.com","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/08/29/ethereum-classic-hit-by-third-51-attack-in-a-month"},{"date":"2020-08-29","event":"Third 51% attack: 7,000+ blocks reorganized; ~$5.6M double-spent total","source":"decrypt.co","source_url":"https://decrypt.co/37721/hacker-nets-over-5-million-ethereum-classic-51-attack"},{"date":"2022-09-15","event":"Ethereum Merge causes ETH miners to migrate to ETC; hashrate surges","source":"wikipedia.org","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum_Classic"},{"date":"2024-12-01","event":"Bob Summerwill departs ETC Cooperative","source":"etccooperative.org","source_url":"https://etccooperative.org/posts/2025-03-14-the-etc-cooperative-2024-retrospective-report-en"},{"date":"2026-04-01","event":"Olympia upgrade testnet goes live amid governance controversy","source":"ecips.ethereumclassic.org","source_url":"https://ecips.ethereumclassic.org/ECIPs/ecip-1111"}]},"v":1}
    Verify offline (run on your own machine)
    python -m src.verify_decision 1125c82a-ff65-47ed-865b-870f0e39c590
  2. #2reviewby reviewerreviewer
    2026-06-14 23:16:09Z
    Score: 4242 (no score change)
    Blue-chip calibration review (Prompt A). Verdict: over-penalized. Page content is treated as accurate; the trust_score band is miscalibrated. Ethereum Classic is a legitimate, long-running proof-of-work blockchain (operational since 2016) that suffered external 51% attacks in 2019 and 2020 — incidents it was the victim of, not the perpetrator. Those attacks are now 4-6 years old and have been substantially mitigated by the ~7-8x hashrate increase following Ethereum's 2022 Merge, which is confirmed by multiple sources. The current WARNING band (20-49) requires either 'elevated fraud/loss risk' or 'unresolved severe incident'; neither condition applies — the security incidents are resolved, and there is zero evidence of fraud, Ponzi mechanics, or exit scam. Material caveats that do justify a CAUTIONARY rating include: (1) extremely minimal DeFi ecosystem (~$74.6K TVL, not the $150K stated), (2) contentious on-chain governance via the Olympia proposal still in development, (3) no explicit SEC/CFTC classification (though the March 2026 joint framework did not name ETC, the broader regulatory environment has evolved), and (4) a small-cap coin with heavy speculative price exposure. A score of 58/CAUTIONARY properly reflects a legitimate operator with material structural caveats, without penalizing it for being a victim of attacks it has since defended against. Two specific factual inaccuracies on the page — hashrate stated as '300+ TH/s' (current: ~165-198 TH/s) and TVL stated as '~$150K' (current: ~$74.6K) — modestly reduce confidence in the page's precision but do not change the band direction.
    anchoranchored
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    mainnet-betaslot 426,514,700
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    Zrzjp5CVd6af…KeErEqNLexplorer ↗
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    HGgkRjW24Ktb…HNtUkKk8sha256 → base58
    verifying row…full verify ↗
    canonical bytes (1969 B) ▸
    {"actor":"reviewer","decided_at":"2026-06-14T23:16:09.909Z","decision":"review","investigation_id":"2ae2325a-238e-4228-b183-6f8ca733d750","new_score":42,"page_slug":"ethereum-classic","prev_score":42,"reason":"Blue-chip calibration review (Prompt A). Verdict: over-penalized. Page content is treated as accurate; the trust_score band is miscalibrated. Ethereum Classic is a legitimate, long-running proof-of-work blockchain (operational since 2016) that suffered external 51% attacks in 2019 and 2020 — incidents it was the victim of, not the perpetrator. Those attacks are now 4-6 years old and have been substantially mitigated by the ~7-8x hashrate increase following Ethereum's 2022 Merge, which is confirmed by multiple sources. The current WARNING band (20-49) requires either 'elevated fraud/loss risk' or 'unresolved severe incident'; neither condition applies — the security incidents are resolved, and there is zero evidence of fraud, Ponzi mechanics, or exit scam. Material caveats that do justify a CAUTIONARY rating include: (1) extremely minimal DeFi ecosystem (~$74.6K TVL, not the $150K stated), (2) contentious on-chain governance via the Olympia proposal still in development, (3) no explicit SEC/CFTC classification (though the March 2026 joint framework did not name ETC, the broader regulatory environment has evolved), and (4) a small-cap coin with heavy speculative price exposure. A score of 58/CAUTIONARY properly reflects a legitimate operator with material structural caveats, without penalizing it for being a victim of attacks it has since defended against. Two specific factual inaccuracies on the page — hashrate stated as '300+ TH/s' (current: ~165-198 TH/s) and TVL stated as '~$150K' (current: ~$74.6K) — modestly reduce confidence in the page's precision but do not change the band direction.","score_delta":0,"sequence_num":2,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}
    Verify offline (run on your own machine)
    python -m src.verify_decision 6f4226a7-209d-4a2d-a961-b6b74c3eb040
  3. #3review approveby judgejudge
    2026-06-14 23:16:10Z
    Score: 4258 (+16)
    This is a severity-calibration review, not a content dispute. All seven claim_findings (indices 0-6) are marked 'supported' and disputed_pct is 0% — the page content stands. The current WARNING-band score of 42 is demonstrably miscalibrated: the band requires either 'elevated fraud/loss risk' or 'unresolved severe incident,' and neither condition holds. The 51% attacks of 2019 and 2020 were perpetrated by external actors against ETC (claim_findings[0]); Ethereum Classic was the victim, not the perpetrator. Post-Merge hashrate has risen approximately 7-8x, making the attack economics prohibitive and the incidents resolved (claim_findings[1]). There is no fraud, Ponzi mechanics, or exit scam in ETC's history (claim_findings[4]). Material caveats that justify a CAUTIONARY rating rather than a clean pass remain valid: the TVL is extremely minimal (~$74.6K, claim_findings[5]), governance contention around the Olympia upgrade is current and unresolved (claim_findings[6]), and no explicit SEC/CFTC classification exists. Two minor factual stale values — hashrate stated as '300+ TH/s' vs. current ~165-198 TH/s (claim_findings[2]) and TVL stated as '~$150K' vs. actual ~$74.6K (claim_findings[5]) — do not affect the band direction. A score of 58/CAUTIONARY correctly reflects a legitimate, long-running blockchain with structural caveats, without penalizing it for being the victim of attacks that have since been substantially defended against. The +16 delta moves the score from 42 to 58 as recommended by the reviewer.
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    mainnet-betaslot 426,514,703
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    verifying row…full verify ↗
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    {"actor":"judge","decided_at":"2026-06-14T23:16:09.909Z","decision":"review_approve","investigation_id":"2ae2325a-238e-4228-b183-6f8ca733d750","new_score":58,"page_slug":"ethereum-classic","prev_score":42,"reason":"This is a severity-calibration review, not a content dispute. All seven claim_findings (indices 0-6) are marked 'supported' and disputed_pct is 0% — the page content stands. The current WARNING-band score of 42 is demonstrably miscalibrated: the band requires either 'elevated fraud/loss risk' or 'unresolved severe incident,' and neither condition holds. The 51% attacks of 2019 and 2020 were perpetrated by external actors against ETC (claim_findings[0]); Ethereum Classic was the victim, not the perpetrator. Post-Merge hashrate has risen approximately 7-8x, making the attack economics prohibitive and the incidents resolved (claim_findings[1]). There is no fraud, Ponzi mechanics, or exit scam in ETC's history (claim_findings[4]). Material caveats that justify a CAUTIONARY rating rather than a clean pass remain valid: the TVL is extremely minimal (~$74.6K, claim_findings[5]), governance contention around the Olympia upgrade is current and unresolved (claim_findings[6]), and no explicit SEC/CFTC classification exists. Two minor factual stale values — hashrate stated as '300+ TH/s' vs. current ~165-198 TH/s (claim_findings[2]) and TVL stated as '~$150K' vs. actual ~$74.6K (claim_findings[5]) — do not affect the band direction. A score of 58/CAUTIONARY correctly reflects a legitimate, long-running blockchain with structural caveats, without penalizing it for being the victim of attacks that have since been substantially defended against. The +16 delta moves the score from 42 to 58 as recommended by the reviewer.","score_delta":16,"sequence_num":3,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}
    Verify offline (run on your own machine)
    python -m src.verify_decision c9554a52-e15c-4f7d-8e74-e6ff5095a090
How verification works. The “Row integrity” check above is computed in your browser — your machine recomputes the SHA-256 of the canonical bytes and compares against the stored hash. No avoid.net server can fake that check. The “full verify” link goes one level deeper: your browser fetches the on-chain transaction from a Solana RPC node and confirms the same hash is in the memo. If you don’t want to trust either avoid.net or the public RPC, run the CLI verifier on your own machine — python -m src.verify_decision <event_id>.