Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition

Ether cryptocurrency / tokens (ETC and ETH)

As an incentive to the miners, Ethereum also rewards its own native currency called Ether, abbreviated as ETH. After the DAO hack (described later in this chapter), a hard fork was proposed in order to mitigate the issue; therefore, there are now two Ethereum blockchains: one is called Ethereum Classic, and its currency is represented by ETC, whereas the hard-forked version is ETH, which continues to grow and on which active development is being carried out. ETC, however, has its following with a dedicated community that is further developing ETC, which is the unforked original version of Ethereum.

This chapter is focused on ETH, which is the currently the most active and official Ethereum blockchain. ...