# Ethereum Classic DAO

> Building the software and infrastructure for global adoption of Ethereum Classic, the only Proof-of-Work blockchain with full EVM compatibility. Digital commodity candidate under the CLARITY Act (Senate Banking Committee passed 15-9, May 2026, Senate floor pending), a decentralized asset under MiCA, and a recognized crypto-asset on Japan's FSA Green List.

## About

Ethereum Classic DAO LLC is the legal entity for the Olympia DAO under Wyoming's DAO LLC framework (Filing ID 2025-001671865). The LLC builds software, ecosystem infrastructure, and hashrate incentives for the world's largest Proof-of-Work smart contract platform, while maintaining active compliance across global regulatory frameworks including MiCA (EU), CLARITY Act (US), GENIUS Act (US), FSA Green List (Japan), FSMA (UK), and VARA (UAE).

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is the only Proof-of-Work blockchain with native EVM smart contracts. Every Ethereum framework, library, and IDE works with Ethereum Classic. Just change the chain ID (61 mainnet, 63 Mordor testnet). Network upgrades are coordinated to maintain EVM protocol parity, delivering a best-in-class EVM experience.

ETC is recognized across leading global regulatory frameworks in the US, EU, UK, Japan, and UAE — a digital commodity candidate under the CLARITY Act (US), decentralized asset under MiCA (EU), and active compliance across GENIUS Act (US), FSA Green List (Japan), FSMA (UK), and VARA (UAE). Classic USD ($USC), issued by Brale Inc. (NMLS #2376957), is a live proof of GENIUS Act and MiCA-aligned stablecoin deployment on ETC mainnet.

## Legal Structure

- **Entity:** Ethereum Classic DAO LLC
- **Jurisdiction:** Wyoming, United States
- **Filing ID:** 2025-001671865
- **Framework:** Wyoming Decentralized Autonomous Organization Supplement
- **Registered Agent:** 30 N Gould St Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801
- **Regulatory alignment:** MiCA (EU, decentralized asset, in force Dec 2024), CLARITY Act (US, digital commodity candidate, Senate Banking Committee passed 15-9 May 2026, Senate floor pending), GENIUS Act (US, stablecoin platform, signed Jul 2025), FSA Green List (Japan), FSMA (UK, implementation Oct 2027), VARA (UAE)

## Olympia — Ethereum Classic's Most Significant Protocol Upgrade

The Olympia era marks a shift from reactive maintenance to active development on the longest-running EVM and the only Proof-of-Work smart contract platform in the world. Four client-facing ECIPs form the core of the upgrade, all activating at the same block:

**ECIP-1111 — EIP-1559 Fee Market:** Adds the most widely adopted transaction format in the EVM ecosystem to Ethereum Classic. Dynamic gas pricing delivers predictable fees for users and applications. Fully additive: legacy transactions remain valid indefinitely. Unlike Ethereum where the basefee is burned, ETC redirects it to the protocol treasury. Miner block rewards and tips remain completely untouched.

**ECIP-1112 — Protocol Treasury:** A protocol-controlled vault funded by basefee revenue and voluntary contributions — delivering on the treasury model first identified during the 2022 Mystique upgrade, when EIP-1559 was deferred pending a decision on where the basefee should flow. For the first time, institutions, developers, and network stakeholders can directly fund Ethereum Classic's core development and critical infrastructure without fielding their own team. Only on-chain governance can release funds: no admin keys, no multisig.

**ECIP-1121 — EVM Compatibility:** Advances the ETC execution layer through Dencun (Cancun-Deneb), Pectra (Prague-Electra), Fusaka (Fulu-Osaka), and Glamsterdam (Gloas-Amsterdam). ETC implemented partial London EIPs in Mystique (2022) and partial Shanghai EIPs in Spiral (2024), deferring the EIP-1559 fee market for independent governance design. ECIP-1111 delivers those deferred London fee market EIPs (EIP-1559 + EIP-3198). ECIP-1121 fills the remaining Shanghai gaps from Spiral's partial implementation and delivers the execution-layer EIPs from Dencun, Pectra, Fusaka, and Glamsterdam that are independent of Proof-of-Stake and blob data availability.

**ECIP-1122 — Network Security Client Configuration:** Three parameters every Olympia-compatible client enforces identically. A 1 gwei minimum effective miner tip (`MIN_MINER_TIP`), so miners retain an economic incentive to process transactions once the basefee is redirected — combined with ECIP-1111's 1 gwei basefee floor this sets a 2 gwei minimum gas price. A network-authoritative gas target schedule (Spiral era 8M, Olympia era 60M) that overrides operator `--miner.gaslimit` flags, closing the gas-limit manipulation vector demonstrated in 2024. And MESS re-activation at the Olympia block, restoring the chain-reorganization resistance switched off at Spiral. These are chain configuration rather than consensus rules: a client that omits them offers weaker guarantees but does not fork from the canonical chain.

Included EIP categories:
- Gas & State Access: EIP-7702 (account delegation for EOAs), EIP-7623 (increased calldata cost), EIP-7823 (MODEXP input upper bounds), EIP-7825 (per-transaction gas cap), EIP-7883 (MODEXP gas cost increase), EIP-7935 (60M default gas limit)
- EVM Safety: EIP-6780 (SELFDESTRUCT restriction), EIP-7934 (RLP block size limit), EIP-7910 (eth_config RPC method), EIP-7997 (deterministic CREATE2 factory predeploy, same address as every other EVM chain)
- Cryptographic Precompiles: EIP-2537 (BLS12-381 for ZK-friendly proofs), EIP-7951 (P256VERIFY for WebAuthn / passkeys)
- Execution Context: EIP-5656 (MCOPY memory copy), EIP-2935 (historical block hashes in state), EIP-1153 (transient storage TSTORE/TLOAD), EIP-7939 (CLZ count-leading-zeros opcode)
- Networking (activates via devp2p capability negotiation, no hard fork): EIP-7642 (eth/69, retains total difficulty for PoW chain selection, drops receipt bloom filters), EIP-7975 (eth/70, paginated receipts for blocks above the p2p size limit)

Explicitly excluded: all blob-dependent EIPs (EIP-4844, EIP-7516, EIP-7691). Ethereum Classic is a pure Layer 1 execution chain with no data availability requirement: blobs are L2 scaffolding ETC does not need.

Developer impact: Solidity 0.8.x+, Foundry, Hardhat, wagmi, viem, and ethers.js all work on ETC without modification or ETC-specific forks after Olympia.

**Governance Architecture — Two Complementary Systems:**

Core Development Governance (ECIP-1113, ECIP-1114, ECIP-1119): Binding on-chain governance scoped to core client software, critical infrastructure, network security, treasury allocation, and emergency protocol responses. Any Olympia DAO member can submit proposals. Open proposals let any EVM developer worldwide bid for development funds, infrastructure contracts, and critical service agreements covering block explorers, RPC endpoints, oracles, bridges, and ecosystem integrations — no employment relationship or preferred vendor status required. All outcomes are executed by the Wyoming DAO LLC on behalf of what the Olympia DAO approves on-chain.

1. Propose — Any ETC account can submit a funding proposal on-chain
2. Vote — Membership NFT holders vote on-chain via OpenZeppelin Governor 5.x
3. Queue — Approved proposals enter a configurable security timelock
4. Execute — After timelock, proposals execute on-chain without manual intervention
5. Disclose — All outcomes are publicly recorded and verifiable on-chain

Futarchy Markets (ECIP-1117, ECIP-1118): Open prediction markets where anyone can speculate on protocol outcomes without membership. Participants are financially rewarded for accurate predictions, bringing new users onto ETC and generating transaction volume that flows as basefee revenue into the protocol treasury. Better signal produces more development funding, creating a self-reinforcing loop between public participation and core development capacity.

1. Open — Anyone opens a prediction market on a proposed protocol outcome
2. Speculate — Public participants stake on outcomes with no membership required
3. Resolve — Markets settle when the underlying governance event executes on-chain
4. Signal — Market prices feed back as on-chain signal into future governance decisions

**Treasury Funding:** Basefee revenue, on-chain donations, and miners directing hashpower to the treasury address. Futarchy prediction market activity generates additional transaction volume that feeds back into the treasury as basefee revenue. Any stakeholder — exchanges, custodians, miners, investment product issuers, or institutions holding ETC on behalf of fund shareholders — can contribute directly on-chain with no overhead. Stakeholders who prefer a traditional giving model can contribute through the ETC Cooperative, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit that accepts tax-deductible donations. Block rewards and tips remain untouched and go entirely to miners.

**Safeguards:** Configurable timelock, on-chain sanctions screening (ECIP-1119), non-transferable membership NFT voting tokens preventing vote buying.

**Institutional Positioning:** Ethereum Classic is the Proof-of-Work infrastructure layer for institutions and sovereign nations building compliant financial systems: regulated stablecoins under MiCA and the GENIUS Act, energy grid stabilization backed by immutable settlement, and ETF-compliant digital asset infrastructure that regulators across the US, EU, Japan, and beyond are moving to define.

## Network Statistics

- Hashrate: the largest Proof-of-Work smart contract network by hashrate; absorbed significant Ethereum mining infrastructure post-Merge. The live figure is published on the site, derived from on-chain block difficulty and the network's measured average block time
- Markets: 300+ active markets across 20+ major global exchanges
- Fiat pairs: ETC/USD, ETC/EUR, ETC/KRW, ETC/TRY, ETC/GBP, ETC/IDR, ETC/INR, ETC/BRL, ETC/NZD, ETC/JPY, ETC/PLN
- Crypto pairs: ETC/USDC, ETC/USDT, ETC/FDUSD, ETC/BTC, ETC/ETH, ETC/BNB, ETC/LTC, ETC/DOGE, ETC/XRP
- Clients: Fukuii (Scala 3, fukuii.org — ETC's first native client, an EVM execution client running several networks at once in one JVM process, ETC primary), Core-Geth (Go, a go-ethereum derivative, maintenance); ETC compatibility plugins for Besu, Erigon, Ethrex, Go-Ethereum, Nethermind, Reth
- Network origin: July 30, 2015 (genesis block — oldest EVM-compatible blockchain)
- Chain IDs: 61 (mainnet), 63 (Mordor testnet)

## Client Implementations

Two active clients at Olympia launch:
- **Fukuii** (fukuii.org) — EVM execution client in Scala 3 LTS on Pekko Typed Actors. One binary runs several networks at once in one JVM process, each isolated with its own state, metrics registry, and configuration; a further network is configuration rather than a new client. Consensus is selected per deployment behind one interface: native Proof-of-Work for ETC mainnet and Mordor, or Proof-of-Stake with a built-in consensus layer or an external client over the Engine API V1–V4. Ships an MCP server exposing node state to AI agents. Apache 2.0, with Cosign-signed build provenance and a CycloneDX SBOM on release artifacts. Ethereum Classic's first native client — built ground-up for ETC rather than derived from an Ethereum client — and the primary ETC client for the Olympia era. By The Fukuii Authors (Chippr Robotics LLC and White B0x Inc.).
- **core-geth** — A go-ethereum derivative maintained for Ethereum Classic, in maintenance only. Implements the full Olympia specification (ECIP-1111, 1112, 1121, 1122) with Mordor sync confirmed, so existing operators have a supported path through the upgrade. New deployments should use Fukuii.

ETC plugins for Besu, Erigon, Ethrex, Go-Ethereum, Nethermind, and Reth — compatibility layers that bring ETC support to major upstream clients without maintaining full forks.

## Developer Tooling (Full EVM Compatibility)

- Smart Contract Development: Hardhat, Foundry (forge/cast/anvil), Remix IDE, OpenZeppelin Contracts 5.x
- Client Libraries: ethers.js v6, viem, web3.js v4
- Wallets: 50+ wallet integrations including hardware wallets, browser extensions, and mobile wallets
- Infrastructure: Public RPC endpoints, block explorers, oracle networks
- Security: Slither, Mythril, Echidna

## Regulatory Framework

Ethereum Classic sits at the intersection of two distinct regulatory trajectories: the digital commodity classification path that Proof-of-Work networks established, and the programmable finance frameworks being built around smart contract platforms. Its regulatory surface is additive — it captures both.

**CLARITY Act (United States) — Digital Commodity**
ETC meets the digital commodity definition under the CLARITY Act: longest-running EVM, no pre-mine, no foundation controlling the protocol, Proof-of-Work consensus matching Bitcoin's commodity profile. CFTC jurisdiction applies to derivatives; spot markets are open to all participants.

**GENIUS Act (United States) — Stablecoin Platform**
ETC is a qualifying EVM for GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin deployment. Classic USD ($USC), issued by Brale Inc. (NMLS #2376957), is the live proof: US-regulated, 1:1 USD-backed, deployed on ETC mainnet (contract: 0xDE093684c796204224BC081f937aa059D903c52a). OCC national trust bank charters now include custody of EVM assets.

**MiCA (European Union) — Decentralized Asset**
No central issuer means ETC is exempt from ART/EMT issuer requirements under MiCA. ETC may be traded by MiCA-licensed CASPs without per-asset approval. Decentralized Proof-of-Work removes any single point of regulatory failure.

**Mined in America Act (United States) — Domestic Mining Infrastructure**
Establishes a voluntary "Mined in America" certification program for domestic PoW mining operations. Directs NIST and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership to support US manufacturing of mining hardware. Provides certified mining operations with access to existing federal energy and rural development programs. The Treasury procurement channel and capital gains exemption for certified miners are Bitcoin-specific. The certification framework, domestic hardware manufacturing support, and energy program access apply to all Proof-of-Work mining, including the ETChash operations securing Ethereum Classic's network.

**FSA Green List (Japan)**
ETC is a recognized crypto-asset on Japan's Financial Services Agency Green List, enabling fast-track listing across all JVCEA-regulated Japanese exchanges.

**Global Regulatory Wave (2025–2026)**
- United States: GENIUS Act + CLARITY Act + OCC Trust Charters + Mined in America Act
- European Union: MiCA (fully applied Dec 30, 2024; hard cutoff Jul 1, 2026) — CASP licensing, EMT/ART stablecoin rules
- United Kingdom: FSMA Cryptoassets Regulations 2026 — 14 regulated activities, FCA + BoE dual stablecoin oversight
- Asia-Pacific: Japan PSA, Hong Kong Stablecoins Ordinance, Australia AFSL, Singapore MAS — 1:1 fiat-backed stablecoins, VASP licensing
- Middle East: UAE VARA v2.0, CBUAE Payment Tokens, Saudi CMA H2 2026 — AED-pegged stablecoins
- Emerging Markets: South Africa CASP (300 licenses), Nigeria ISA 2025, Kenya VASP Act 2025

## Classic USD ($USC) — Regulated Stablecoin on Ethereum Classic

Classic USD is the first and leading fiat-backed stablecoin native to Ethereum Classic. It is the live demonstration of GENIUS Act-aligned stablecoin infrastructure on a Proof-of-Work EVM.

- **Symbol:** $USC (Classic USD)
- **Backing:** 1:1 USD in segregated, regulated US bank accounts
- **Issuer:** Brale Inc. — licensed money transmitter (NMLS #2376957)
- **Redemption:** 1:1 USD, USDC (Circle), or USDP (Paxos)
- **Network:** Ethereum Classic mainnet (Chain ID 61)
- **Contract:** 0xDE093684c796204224BC081f937aa059D903c52a
- **Reserve verification:** Third-party attestations, SOC 2 compliance, multi-sig, timelock
- **Website:** classicusd.com

Classic USD proves ETC's EVM handles regulated financial instruments, enables composable DeFi with a USD stable base, and validates ETC as a GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin platform. Brale's API-accessible platform opens a pathway for additional fiat-backed asset issuers.

## Energy and Proof-of-Work Infrastructure

Ethereum Classic's Proof-of-Work network functions as a global, 24/7, permissionless buyer of last resort for stranded and excess energy worldwide.

**How PoW transforms energy markets:**
- Grid Stabilization: Miners are uniquely flexible electricity consumers that can ramp up or curtail in seconds. Grid operators contract with miners as demand-response resources.
- Buyer of Last Resort: Remote hydro, stranded wind farms, and off-peak power plants gain a mobile, shippable, always-on buyer that co-locates with any power source.
- Methane Conversion: Mining at oil field wellheads converts methane (80× more potent than CO₂ over 20 years) to CO₂ via combustion, reducing climate impact while generating economic returns from waste gas.
- Bootstrapping Remote Grids: PoW mining provides the anchor customer that makes grid construction economically viable in regions lacking transmission infrastructure.

**Stranded energy use cases:** Remote hydroelectric, flared wellhead gas, curtailed wind and solar, off-peak industrial power, landfill gas, geothermal in seismically active regions.

**ETC as energy market:** Mining profitability is a direct function of ETC price × block reward ÷ energy cost. When energy is cheap, mining profitability rises, driving up hash rate and energy consumption. When energy is expensive, miners curtail operations, freeing capacity for other uses. With 300+ exchanges across every time zone, ETC markets offer true 24/7 price discovery, unlike energy futures, which close on weekends. Fiat pairs across major currencies let local energy producers price their output in local terms. ETC/USD spot markets have operated continuously since 2016.

**Dirty Coin documentary:** Directed by Alana Mediavilla, filmed over three years across four continents from rural Texas to the mountains of Malawi. Documents how Proof-of-Work mining reshapes energy economics and creates socio-economic opportunity in communities the traditional grid has never reached. Winner, Best National Documentary, Puerto Rico Film Festival 2025. See dirtycointhemovie.com.

**Hardware:** GPU mining (retail accessible worldwide, any gaming PC can participate) and purpose-built ETChash ASIC hardware (institutional scale). ETC is the only smart contract platform with both retail GPU accessibility and institutional ASIC infrastructure — the widest mining participation curve of any programmable blockchain. The Mined in America Act establishes a voluntary federal certification program for domestic PoW mining and directs NIST to support domestic ASIC manufacturing — legislative recognition that the US government views Proof-of-Work mining as domestic energy infrastructure worth protecting and growing.

## Institutional Stewardship

**ETC Cooperative**
The ETC Cooperative is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit that has funded Ethereum Classic's core client development for years, contributing millions of dollars to the network's client teams and infrastructure through every upgrade cycle since Atlantis. Every hard fork, every client release, and every cross-client coordination effort has been backed by their balance sheet, sustained by a small team that believed in ETC when institutional support was scarce.

Olympia is what the ETC Cooperative was building toward: a protocol-native funding model that does not depend on any single organization's continued generosity. The Olympia Treasury, governed on-chain by the Olympia DAO and executed by the Wyoming DAO LLC, extends beyond institutional dependency with a durable financial foundation that scales with network usage and addresses the network's needs openly and transparently. Mining operations, hardware manufacturers, exchanges, and individual supporters can now contribute directly on-chain. What once required the infrastructure of a dedicated non-profit now takes a single transaction.

The ETC Cooperative continues as an active steward of Ethereum Classic, organized as a US 501(c)(3) non-profit and a founding participant in the open development model Olympia establishes. The model changes, not the commitment. Any developer, organization, or stakeholder across the entire EVM ecosystem can now contribute to and bid for Ethereum Classic's core development on equal terms, without fielding a team or managing a non-profit. The regulatory clarity now taking shape globally, with ETC positioned as a digital commodity candidate under the CLARITY Act (Senate Banking Committee passed 15-9, May 2026), a decentralized asset under MiCA, and a qualifying stablecoin platform under the GENIUS Act, means the full spectrum of participants, from retail individuals to regulated institutions, can engage with confidence.

**Grayscale Investments — Pioneering Institutional Stewardship**
Grayscale pioneered regulated institutional access to blockchain networks, launching the Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG) in 2018, years before Bitcoin ETFs existed as a product category. Alongside the product launch, Grayscale became a major institutional donor to the ETC Cooperative, indirectly funding the core client development of the network underpinning their product. No other investment product issuer was doing this at the time. What Grayscale was practicing on Ethereum Classic in 2018 is now a recognized trend across the industry: ETF issuers funding protocol development, corporate treasury strategies reinvesting in network ecosystems. They were years ahead of an industry that has only recently caught up.

Taking that model on-chain and open-sourcing it through smart contracts is only possible on Ethereum Classic. Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin have no native smart contract functionality, so their core development funding depends entirely on off-chain organizations, personal relationships, and institutional trust. Olympia DAO eliminates that dependency. By applying the best practices of the EVM ecosystem to the Proof-of-Work model, ETC becomes the first PoW network to fund its own core development through a fully transparent, permissionless, on-chain process. Any holder, whether through ETCG, a direct wallet, or any future investment product, now has a direct on-chain path to the protocol treasury. Grayscale saw it coming. Olympia makes it real.

## Institutional Investment Products

**Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG)**
- Ticker: ETCG — OTCQX Best Market
- Established: May 10, 2018
- Structure: Grantor trust (not a registered investment company). ETC flows directly as trust assets.
- Custody: Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC
- Sponsor: Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC (subsidiary of Digital Currency Group)
- ETC per share: 0.785 (static, changes only when management fees are paid)
- Shares outstanding: 13,993,800
- Available through: Charles Schwab, Fidelity, E*Trade (Morgan Stanley), Interactive Brokers, Webull, and most major US brokerages
- Data sources: Yahoo Finance (ETCG), Bloomberg (ETCG:US)

**Grayscale Product Lifecycle:**
1. Closed-End Trust (OTCQX) — private placement, 6-month lockup, no redemption, price deviates from NAV. ETCG completed this stage.
2. SEC Reporting — 10-K/10-Q filings, IRA/brokerage eligible, institutional distribution. ETCG completed this stage (~2021).
3. ETF Conversion — exchange-listed, redemption restores NAV parity, broadest access. GBTC converted January 2024. ETHE converted July 2024. ETCG is the natural next candidate.

**Precedent:**
- GBTC: Trust inception Sep 2013 → ETF conversion Jan 2024 → ~$60B AUM
- ETHE: Trust inception Dec 2017 → ETF conversion Jul 2024 → ~$16B AUM (BlackRock ETHA)
- ETCG: Trust inception May 2018 → ETF conversion pending

**Bitcoin ETF issuers with infrastructure to launch ETC products:** BlackRock (IBIT, $60B+), Fidelity (FBTC), VanEck (HODL), Invesco/Galaxy (BTCO), Franklin Templeton (EZBC), Ark Invest/21Shares (ARKB), Bitwise (BITB), Grayscale (GBTC/BTC Mini), Valkyrie (BRRR), WisdomTree (BTCW).

**Ethereum ETF issuers:** BlackRock (ETHA, $16B+), Fidelity (FETH), VanEck (ETHV), Franklin Templeton (EZET), Grayscale (ETHE/ETH Mini), 21Shares.

**Investment thesis:**
1. Unique regulatory surface: ETC inherits the commodity profile that Bitcoin established for Proof-of-Work networks and the programmable finance frameworks that Ethereum established for smart contract platforms. It is the only network that occupies both positions.
2. Classic USD ($USC) by Brale is live on ETC mainnet: a 1:1 USD-backed stablecoin issued under US money transmission licensing. First regulated stablecoin on a Proof-of-Work EVM.
3. Olympia upgrade: EIP-1559 fee market with basefee-funded protocol treasury and Glamsterdam-era EVM parity. Every current Ethereum tool, library, and framework works on ETC without modification.
4. Original EVM, in continuous operation since July 2015. Longer operational track record than any competing smart contract platform.
5. Post-Merge infrastructure: largest Proof-of-Work network with native smart contracts. Retail GPU access and institutional ASIC hardware available.
6. 300+ exchanges, fiat currency pairs across major global markets, continuous ETC/USD price discovery since 2016. Liquidity depth required for a credible global stablecoin settlement layer.

## Olympia Upgrade Guide

Node operators must upgrade before the Olympia activation block. Clients available:

- **Fukuii** (fukuii.org) — EVM execution client in Scala 3 LTS on the JVM. One binary runs several networks at once in one process; a further network is configuration rather than a new client. Native Proof-of-Work for ETC mainnet and Mordor. Consensus is selected per deployment: Proof-of-Stake networks run with a built-in consensus layer, or an external client (Lighthouse, Prysm, Teku, Lodestar, Nimbus) drives it over the Engine API V1–V4 instead. Requires a current JDK LTS (25); the Docker image bundles one. Ethereum Classic's first native client — built ground-up for ETC rather than derived from an Ethereum client — and the primary ETC client for the Olympia era. By The Fukuii Authors (Chippr Robotics LLC and White B0x Inc.).
- **Core-Geth** — A go-ethereum derivative maintained for ETC, in maintenance only. Implements the full Olympia specification with Mordor sync confirmed. New deployments should use Fukuii.

Prerequisites: 8 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD. Block rewards and tips remain untouched; only EIP-1559 basefee is redirected to the treasury.

## Olympia Staged Rollout

Olympia arrives in five stages. **Stages 1 and 5 are hard forks; Stages 2, 3 and 4 are not** — the middle three are contract deployments and governance actions on a chain whose consensus rules are already settled, and none of them can cause a node to diverge. Staging is real deployment sequencing, not only operational maturity. Each stage depends only on the stages before it.

1. **Stage 1 — Consensus Upgrades** (ECIP-1111, ECIP-1112, ECIP-1121, ECIP-1122) — hard fork. EIP-1559 activates with the basefee redirected to the protocol treasury, the execution layer advances through Glamsterdam, and client security parameters take effect. The treasury contract deploys at this fork; the governance suite that spends from it does not.
2. **Stage 2 — Core Governance** (ECIP-1113, ECIP-1114, ECIP-1119) — no fork. Governor, timelock, executor, membership NFT and funding-proposal registry deploy against addresses reserved before Stage 1, and the treasury becomes spendable. The gap after Stage 1 is a deliberate audit window; the treasury accrues revenue throughout it.
3. **Stage 3 — Prediction Markets** (ECIP-1117, ECIP-1118, ECIP-1119) — no fork. A futarchy Child-DAO alongside membership voting, never replacing it. Collateral is ETC and Classic USD, custodied by the conditional-token contracts rather than the treasury. Needs those contracts and an ERC-1155 wrapper on ETC: deployment work, not a capability gap, since both target EVM semantics ETC has had since Spiral in 2024. Its position is a sequencing choice, not a technical dependency. ECIP-1119's sanctions compliance oracle, deployed in Stage 2, applies here as well because funds move.
4. **Stage 4 — Treasury Distribution** (ECIP-1115) — no fork. A smoothing curve routing a share of treasury-held basefee back to miners, every parameter adjustable through governance so the curve is measured rather than assumed, while ECIP-1017 block rewards still secure the chain.
5. **Stage 5 — Protocol Integration** (ECIP-1116) — second hard fork. The demonstrated curve is embedded into block finalization, paid by the protocol rather than disbursed from the treasury and no longer adjustable by governance. Cannot activate before Stage 4 has produced observational data.

This is the rollout of the Olympia upgrade, distinct from the network upgrades already activated — see Core Development Timeline below for those.

## Core Development Timeline

Ethereum Classic mainnet upgrades from genesis through Olympia (sourced from ECIP-1066):

1. **Frontier** (Block 1, 2015-07-30) — EVM genesis. First production smart contract platform.
2. **Frontier Thawing** (Block 200,000, 2015-09-07) — Gas limit increase, difficulty adjustment.
3. **Homestead** (Block 1,150,000, 2016-03-14) — EIP-2, EIP-7, EIP-8. First stable release.
4. **ETH DAO Fork Rejected** (Block 1,920,000, 2016-07-20) — Defining moment. Code is Law upheld. ETC/ETH permanent split.
5. **Gas Reprice / Tangerine Whistle** (Block 2,500,000, 2016-10-24) — ECIP-1015, EIP-150. IO opcode repricing.
6. **Die Hard / Spurious Dragon** (Block 3,000,000, 2017-01-13) — ECIP-1010, EIP-155, EIP-160. Chain ID 61, difficulty bomb delayed.
7. **Gotham / 5M20** (Block 5,000,000, 2017-12-11) — ECIP-1017. Fixed monetary policy, 210,700,000 max supply.
8. **Defuse Difficulty Bomb** (Block 5,900,000, 2018-05-29) — ECIP-1041. Difficulty bomb permanently removed.
9. **Atlantis / Byzantium** (Block 8,772,000, 2019-09-12) — ECIP-1054. ZK precompiles, REVERT opcode, receipt status.
10. **Agharta / Constantinople** (Block 9,573,000, 2020-01-11) — ECIP-1056. Bitwise shift, CREATE2, EXTCODEHASH.
11. **Phoenix / Istanbul** (Block 10,500,839, 2020-06-01) — ECIP-1088. BLAKE2 precompile, CHAINID opcode.
12. **MESS Default: On / ECBP-1100** (Block 11,380,000, 2020-10-09) — ECIP-1100. Exponential chain scoring replaces linear total difficulty, raising the cost of low-hashrate reorganization attacks.
13. **Thanos / ETChash** (Block 11,700,000, 2020-11-28) — ECIP-1099. ETChash algorithm, DAG growth reduction, GPU mining preserved.
14. **Magneto / Berlin** (Block 13,189,133, 2021-07-23) — ECIP-1103. Typed transactions, access lists, cold storage repricing.
15. **Mystique / London (partial)** (Block 14,525,000, 2022-02-12) — ECIP-1104. Gas refund reduction, 0xEF prefix reserved.
16. **Spiral / Shanghai** (Block 19,250,000, 2024-02-04) — ECIP-1109. PUSH0, warm COINBASE, initcode limit.
17. **MESS Default: Off / ECBP-1110** (Block 19,250,000, 2024-02-04) — ECIP-1110. Default set to off after a period of low hashrate; set back to on at Olympia by ECIP-1122.
18. **Olympia / Glamsterdam** (Pending activation, 2027) — ECIP-1111, ECIP-1112, ECIP-1121, ECIP-1122. EIP-1559 fee market, protocol treasury, Glamsterdam EVM alignment (18 EIPs spanning London through Glamsterdam).

## Olympia Upgrade FAQ

**Who is coordinating the Olympia upgrade?**
Olympia is coordinated by the same developers, organizations, and community stewards who have delivered every Ethereum Classic network upgrade since 2016: Gotham, Die Hard, Defuse Difficulty Bomb, Thanos, and the full EVM compatibility series spanning Gas Reprice, Atlantis, Agharta, Phoenix, Magneto, Mystique, and Spiral. The ETC Cooperative, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit, funds Ethereum Classic's client development teams and has managed the hard fork coordination process throughout that history. Stakeholder outreach, client release sequencing, and cross-client testing are all established practice. Olympia is a significant upgrade carried forward by a team with a clean delivery record across a decade of ETC network upgrades.

**What role has the ETC Cooperative played, and what changes with Olympia?**
The ETC Cooperative is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit that has funded Ethereum Classic's core client development for years, contributing millions of dollars to the network's client teams and infrastructure through every upgrade cycle. Every hard fork, every client release, and every cross-client coordination effort has been backed by their balance sheet. Olympia is what they were building toward: a protocol-native funding model that does not depend on any single organization's continued generosity. The Olympia Treasury, governed on-chain by the Olympia DAO and executed by the Wyoming DAO LLC, extends beyond institutional dependency with a durable financial foundation that scales with network usage. The model changes, not the commitment. The ETC Cooperative continues as an active steward, and any developer, mining operation, hardware manufacturer, or individual worldwide can now contribute directly on-chain without fielding a team or managing a non-profit to do it.

**What is Grayscale's role in Ethereum Classic's development?**
Grayscale launched the Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG) in 2018, years before Bitcoin ETFs existed as a product category, and became a major institutional donor to the ETC Cooperative, indirectly funding the network's core client development at a time when no other investment product issuer was doing anything comparable. What Grayscale was practicing on Ethereum Classic in 2018 is now a recognized trend: ETF issuers funding protocol development, corporate treasury strategies reinvesting in network ecosystems. Taking that model on-chain is only possible on Ethereum Classic because ETC is the only Proof-of-Work blockchain with native smart contracts. Olympia DAO makes it permissionless, opening a direct on-chain contribution path to every holder, whether through ETCG, a direct wallet, or any future investment product.

**What does EVM alignment to Glamsterdam actually mean for builders?**
ECIP-1121 closes years of EVM divergence in a single upgrade, delivering the execution-layer improvements from Dencun, Pectra, and Fusaka that are independent of Proof-of-Stake and blob data availability, and carrying that work into Glamsterdam. Before Olympia, ETC lagged behind on these EIPs, creating real friction for developers deploying across EVM chains. After Olympia, Solidity 0.8.x, Foundry, Hardhat, wagmi, viem, and ethers.js all work on ETC without modification, patching, or ETC-specific overrides. One codebase deploys to every EVM chain. ETC could not credibly claim full tooling compatibility before Olympia. After Olympia, it can.

**How does the protocol treasury work?**
The Olympia Treasury is funded by EIP-1559 basefee revenue, voluntary on-chain donations, and mining rewards directed to the treasury address. Block rewards and tips remain completely untouched and go entirely to miners. Futarchy prediction market activity generates additional transaction volume that flows back into the treasury as basefee revenue. Any stakeholder — whether exchanges, custodians, miners, investment product issuers, or institutions holding ETC on behalf of fund shareholders — can contribute directly on-chain with no overhead. Stakeholders who prefer a traditional giving model can contribute through the ETC Cooperative, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit that accepts tax-deductible donations.

**How was Olympia tested before mainnet?**
Olympia activates on the Mordor testnet first. Mordor is Ethereum Classic's Proof-of-Work testnet and mirrors mainnet conditions closely. The mainnet activation block is not set until Mordor has run cleanly and major network stakeholders, including exchanges, custodians, and mining pools, have confirmed readiness.

**When is the mainnet activation block?**
Olympia activates on Mordor testnet first. The mainnet activation block is announced after a successful Mordor run and a coordinated stakeholder readiness check with exchanges, mining pools, node operators, and infrastructure providers. All client implementations publish Olympia-compatible releases well before activation. The process follows the same sequence used for every previous ETC hard fork.

**Will my miner rewards change?**
No. Block rewards and tips remain completely untouched. Olympia redirects the EIP-1559 basefee to the protocol treasury. The basefee is a value that would otherwise be destroyed and has never been part of miner compensation. Miner revenue is unchanged.

**What happens if I don't upgrade my node?**
Nodes that are not upgraded before the activation block will stop following the canonical chain. You will need to upgrade your client and resync from the fork point. Exchanges, wallets, RPC providers, and services running outdated clients will be unable to process transactions on the post-Olympia chain. Client release announcements are published well in advance to give operators time to upgrade.

**Is Ethereum Classic a security or commodity after Olympia?**
Olympia strengthens ETC's regulatory profile. In the EU, ETC qualifies as a decentralized asset under MiCA, in force since December 2024, exempt from per-asset issuer requirements. In Japan, ETC is recognized on the FSA Green List. In the US, ETC is positioned as a digital commodity candidate under the CLARITY Act, Senate Banking Committee passed 15-9 (May 2026), Senate floor pending. Olympia's three-layer governance architecture — Olympia DAO binding decisions, open futarchy prediction markets, and the network participant layer — ensures no single party controls the protocol. Protocol changes achieve distributed consensus when the broader network adopts them. This is the core decentralization criterion regulators apply across every major framework.

**Can I roll back if something goes wrong?**
In the unlikely event of a critical issue after activation, the same client teams that have managed every ETC emergency response since 2016 would coordinate a patch release promptly. The established stakeholder communication channels, including the ETC Cooperative, client maintainers, and major exchange contacts, are the same ones used for every previous upgrade. Olympia has broader test coverage across more independent client implementations than any previous ETC hard fork, and the Mordor testnet run provides a real network validation environment before mainnet activation.

## Governance FAQ

**What is a DAO LLC?**
A DAO LLC is a legal entity recognized under Wyoming law that wraps a decentralized autonomous organization in a traditional corporate structure. It provides limited liability protection to members while preserving on-chain governance. Ethereum Classic DAO LLC was registered in Wyoming in 2025 (Filing ID 2025-001671865). The Wyoming DAO LLC executes on-chain decisions in the real world, including contracts, vendor agreements, and institutional relationships, on behalf of what the Olympia DAO approves on-chain.

**Who is responsible for the Olympia upgrade?**
Olympia is coordinated by the same developers, organizations, and community stewards who have delivered every Ethereum Classic network upgrade since 2016: Gotham, Die Hard, Defuse Difficulty Bomb, Thanos, and the full EVM compatibility series spanning Gas Reprice, Atlantis, Agharta, Phoenix, Magneto, Mystique, and Spiral. The ETC Cooperative, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit, funds Ethereum Classic's client development teams and has managed the hard fork coordination process throughout that history. Stakeholder outreach, client release sequencing, and cross-client testing are all established practice. Olympia is a significant upgrade carried forward by a team with a clean delivery record across a decade of ETC network upgrades.

**What role has the ETC Cooperative played, and what changes with Olympia?**
The ETC Cooperative is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit that has funded Ethereum Classic's core client development for years, contributing millions of dollars to the network's client teams and infrastructure through every upgrade cycle. Every hard fork, every client release, and every cross-client coordination effort has been backed by their balance sheet. Olympia is what they were building toward: a protocol-native funding model that does not depend on any single organization's continued generosity. The model changes, not the commitment. The ETC Cooperative continues as an active steward, and any developer, mining operation, hardware manufacturer, investment product issuer, or individual worldwide can now contribute directly on-chain without fielding a team or managing a non-profit to do it. The regulatory clarity now taking shape globally — ETC positioned as a digital commodity candidate under the CLARITY Act (Senate Banking Committee passed 15-9, May 2026, Senate floor pending), a decentralized asset under MiCA (in force December 2024), listed on Japan's FSA Green List, and qualifying infrastructure for stablecoin issuance under the GENIUS Act, with parallel frameworks advancing across the UK, UAE, Hong Kong, and major Asia-Pacific jurisdictions — means the full spectrum of participants can engage with confidence.

**What is the significance of Grayscale's support for Ethereum Classic?**
Grayscale launched the Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust (ETCG) in 2018, years before Bitcoin ETFs existed as a product category, and simultaneously became a major institutional donor to the ETC Cooperative — pioneering what is now recognized industry practice: investment product issuers directly funding the protocol development underlying their products. What Grayscale was doing in 2018, the rest of the industry has only recently caught up to. With Olympia, Grayscale leads again — from pioneering the institutional off-chain funding model to supporting the first Proof-of-Work network to take that model fully on-chain. This is only possible on Ethereum Classic: Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin have no native smart contract functionality and depend entirely on off-chain organizations and institutional goodwill to fund development. Grayscale, as one of the largest stakeholders in the ETC network, has proven consistently aligned to ETC's core principles — contributing material funding to codify those principles into ETC's development infrastructure. With Olympia, those efforts move on-chain. Contributions are open to all. Access is open to all. ETC's self-sovereignty is no longer dependent on any single institution's continued generosity.

**How is the Treasury funded?**
The Olympia Treasury is funded by basefee revenue, voluntary on-chain donations, and mining rewards directed to the treasury address. Block rewards and tips remain completely untouched and go entirely to miners. Futarchy prediction market activity generates additional transaction volume that flows back into the treasury as basefee revenue. Any stakeholder — whether exchanges, custodians, miners, investment product issuers, or institutions holding ETC on behalf of fund shareholders — can contribute directly on-chain with no overhead. Stakeholders who prefer a traditional giving model can contribute through the ETC Cooperative, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit that accepts tax-deductible donations.

**Who can participate in governance?**
Three systems operate in parallel. Binding protocol decisions are made by Olympia DAO members holding non-transferable membership NFTs — any EVM developer worldwide can submit proposals and bid for development funds, infrastructure contracts, or service agreements with no employment relationship or preferred vendor status required. Public participation is open to everyone through futarchy prediction markets, where anyone can stake on proposal outcomes without membership and earn financial rewards for accurate predictions. The network participant layer provides a third governance signal: miners, exchanges, wallets, and infrastructure providers govern through the client software they run. The three tiers are mutually dependent — developers build and maintain the protocol, users interact and generate value, and network participants run the software that secures and routes it.

**How does voting work?**
Governance operates on three complementary layers. The Olympia DAO uses non-transferable membership NFTs for binding protocol decisions scoped to core client software, critical infrastructure, network security, treasury allocation, and emergency responses — governed by the OpenZeppelin Governor 5.x contract suite, which defines the full voting, quorum, timelock, and proposal lifecycle parameters. Open futarchy prediction markets allow anyone to stake on proposal outcomes without membership, earn financial rewards for accurate predictions, and generate basefee revenue that flows back to the protocol treasury. The network participant layer provides a third governance signal: miners, exchanges, wallets, and infrastructure providers run the software that makes the network real. Protocol changes achieve distributed consensus when the broader network adopts them — an expression of interdependence across all three tiers.

**What does EVM alignment to Glamsterdam mean for builders?**
Olympia closes years of EVM divergence in a single upgrade. ECIP-1111 fills the London gap deferred by Mystique. ECIP-1121 fills the remaining Shanghai gaps from Spiral's partial implementation and advances through Dencun, Pectra, and Fusaka — taking every execution-layer improvement independent of Proof-of-Stake — and carries that work into Glamsterdam. After Olympia, Solidity 0.8.x, Foundry, Hardhat, wagmi, viem, and ethers.js all work on ETC without modification, patching, or ETC-specific forks. One codebase deploys to every EVM chain. Before Olympia, ETC could not claim full compatibility with current Ethereum tooling. After Olympia, it can.

**When does Olympia activate?**
Olympia is targeted for mainnet activation in 2027. Olympia activates on Mordor testnet first. The mainnet activation block is announced after a successful Mordor run and a coordinated stakeholder readiness check with exchanges, mining pools, node operators, and infrastructure providers. The process follows the same sequence used for every previous ETC hard fork. All client implementations publish Olympia-compatible releases well before activation.

**How are treasury funds protected from misuse?**
Multiple safeguards protect treasury funds. A configurable timelock delay on all approved proposals gives the community time to review before execution. On-chain sanctions screening prevents sanctioned addresses from participating or receiving funds. Non-transferable voting tokens prevent vote buying. All governance mechanics are implemented through OpenZeppelin's Governor 5.x framework — an audited contract suite with a multi-year deployment record across the EVM ecosystem. All treasury transactions are publicly recorded and independently verifiable on-chain. The Wyoming DAO LLC provides an additional layer of legal accountability for real-world execution.

**Is Ethereum Classic a security or commodity?**
Ethereum Classic is positioned for classification as a digital commodity under the CLARITY Act framework. As a Proof-of-Work blockchain with no pre-mine, no ICO, no foundation controlling the protocol, and decentralized community governance, ETC aligns with the commodity characteristics the CLARITY Act is designed to recognize. In the EU, ETC qualifies as a decentralized asset under MiCA, exempt from per-asset issuer requirements. The CLARITY Act passed the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 (May 2026); Senate floor vote is pending.

## Web Properties

- ethereumclassicdao.org — This site (institutional)
- ethereumclassicdao.org/regulation — Global regulatory landscape and ETC positioning
- ethereumclassicdao.org/environmental-impact — Proof-of-Work energy economics and stranded energy
- ethereumclassicdao.org/investment-products — ETCG trust, ETF lifecycle, institutional access
- ethereumclassicdao.org/core-development — Full network upgrade history (ECIP-1066)
- ethereumclassicdao.org/timeline — Olympia staged rollout: the five stages, which are hard forks and which are not
- olympiadao.org — Governance landing page
- olympiatreasury.org — Treasury monitoring dashboard
- app.olympiadao.org — Proposal submission, voting, and execution
- github.com/EthereumClassicDAO — Open-source repositories

## Contact

Registered Agent: 30 N Gould St Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States
Wyoming Secretary of State Filing: https://wyobiz.wyo.gov/business/FilingDetails.aspx?eFNum=101157225123250204055197221085227098244002050082