Preamble

Hello, and Welcome!

This community call is a voice chat discussion about Ethereum Classic, open to everyone.

The call will be published on YouTube, so let’s be nice to each other.

Announcements

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In Memoriam: Donald McIntyre

We pause to remember Donald McIntyre, a prolific writer and speaker in the Ethereum Classic community, who passed away on November 2, 2025. Donald contributed many articles to ethereumclassic.org and was a frequent keynote speaker at blockchain conferences.

Bob Summerwill’s tribute: https://bobsummerwill.com/2025/12/31/donald-mcintyre/

Pull Request Corner

PR #547 HAS BEEN MERGED! ECIP-1120 has been merged. What’s next? See ecip1120.dev for details.
PR #554 - ECIP-1121 execution client specifications (realcodywburns) (new)
PR #553 - Replace external ecip_validator gem with local implementation
PR #551 - Fix Olympia ECIPs categorization

Let’s Dive In

3 Topics.

Freebird’s Funding Comments
Research Next Steps
Consensus & Signaling

Freebird Comments

Critical software funds are running dry. ETC Coop is selling ETC at rock bottom prices each quarter. Verify here https://etccooperative.org/filings

Mar 14, 2025: As of December 31, 2024, the Coop has $0.4M in USD and $1.7M in ETC at Market Value. However, the crypto markets lack stability and as of February 2025, that has been fluctuating between $1.7M- $1.0M. Without any way to obtain funding, the ETC Coop will be in maintenance mode, with spending minimized, until the funding runs out. At that time, it will be up to other stakeholders to take on any required maintenance of the ETC client, unless a new plan materializes. ~ ETC Cooperative, 2024 Retrospective Report (page 25)
Jun 24th, 2025: As of March 31, 2025, the ETC Coop had 67,400 ETC tokens in its custody account. The market value at March 31, 2024 was $1,131,407. The ETC Cooperative will not be sustainable in the future, without new sponsors or a significant increase in the market value of the ETC tokens held. ~ ETC Cooperative, 2025 Q1 Report (page 14)
Sep 1, 2025: As of June 30, 2025, the ETC Coop had 63,385 ETC tokens in its custody account. The market value at June 30, 2025 was $1,050,000. During the quarter, 3000 ETC tokens were swapped for USD for regular operating cash-flows. The ETC Cooperative will not be sustainable in the future, without new sponsors or a significant increase in the market value of the ETC tokens held. ~ ETC Cooperative, 2025 Q2 Report (page 8)
Dec 15, 2025: As of September 30, 2025, the ETC Coop had 60,085 ETC tokens in its custody account. The market value at September 30, 2025 was $1.16M. During the quarter, 3300 ETC tokens were swapped for USD for regular operating cash-flows. We are currently redeeming about one month of expenses per month. However, since the date of this report the ETC price has been declining significantly. The ETC Cooperative will not be sustainable in the future, without new sponsors. ~ ETC Cooperative, 2025 Q3 Report (page 8)

Putting a real issue on the table for discussion (same topic raised in Q1 2025).

Based on public filings, ETC core client maintenance funding is trending toward exhaustion within ~12 months. Bitmain stepping in to fund a couple of dev roles helps short-term, but it also highlights a recurring pattern: teams run out of runway, external sponsors bridge it temporarily, and then the cycle repeats.

For folks here with experience in PoW networks, infra, or client maintenance: what actually prevents this from recurring long-term?

Concretely, the risks I’m watching are operational, not theoretical:

Client maintenance slows/stalls (consensus/EVM compatibility risk over time)
Public RPC availability degrades (ecosystem usability + reliability)
Explorer/indexing funding degrades (basic transparency + dev tooling)
If infra and maintenance slip, exchanges/miners/users feel it first via liquidity + integration friction

How do other networks keep core maintenance and critical infra predictable and sustainable without becoming permanently dependent on a single sponsor?

Research Plan

Regardless of whether a Treasury happens or not, there are important research tasks to complete.

Research needed: optimal smoothing parameters (128 blocks as starting point?)
OMER (uncle block) handling with the new mechanism
Testing strategy and testnet deployment
March 2026 go/no-go decision timeline still on track?

Consensus & Signaling: Lessons from Bitcoin

ECIP-1022, authored by Wei Tang, proposed a decentralized voting mechanism for ETC consensus changes, specifically for contentious hard forks, adapted from Bitcoin’s BIP-9/BIP-135. Instead of hard-coding block numbers for forks, miners signal support by setting bits in each block’s extraData field. When enough blocks signal support (meeting a threshold within a measurement window), the fork “locks in” and activates after a grace period. This allows forks to progress through states: DEFINED → STARTED → LOCKED_IN → ACTIVE (or FAILED).

Bitcoin’s experience: BIP-9 gave miners veto power, leading to BIP-8 and “Speedy Trial” alternatives
MASF (Miner Activated) vs. UASF (User Activated) soft forks
How should ETC coordinate consensus changes? Flag day? Miner signaling? Hybrid?
What role should miners, node operators, and stakeholders each play?

Bonus 1: What’s Next for ETC?

Prediction markets and other new applications coming to ETC
What else should we be building or exploring?
Open floor for ideas and discussion

Bonus 2: Quantifying ETC’s Distribution

Market cap is a poor metric for value - what fundamentals actually matter?
How distributed is ETC compared to other chains? Can we measure this?
Fair launch history: no premine, no ICO, organic distribution since 2016
Research idea: analyze on-chain distribution metrics (Gini coefficient, top holder concentration, etc.)

Call References

AI Summary

Key takeaways

ECIP1120 has been merged into the eSIPS repo, allowing progress on research for Olympia proposal
ECIP1121 was discussed and approved, which will bring Ethereum Classic up to date with Ethereum Mainnet’s opcodes and code-based changes
A transaction gas limit cap (EIP7825) was discussed, which would help prevent denial-of-service attacks
Donald McIntyre, a prolific contributor to Ethereum Classic, passed away on November 2, 2025
Discussion about funding models for client maintenance and infrastructure, with the Co-OP continuing to support ecosystem partners
AI tools were discussed as a potential way to accelerate development with less specialized expertise

Discussed topics

ECIP1120 and Olympia Proposal Update

Brief update on the status of ECIP1120 and next steps for research.

Details
- Istora: ECIP1120 has been merged into the eSIPS repo, providing a starting point for further research on both ECIP1120 and potential mechanisms within the Olympia proposal
- Istora: Research is needed for the smoothing mechanism and the number of blocks for distribution discussed in previous calls
Conclusion
- A research plan needs to be developed to test future parameters and client code work

ECIP1121 - Ethereum Mainnet Compatibility

Discussion about bringing Ethereum Classic up to date with Ethereum Mainnet features.

Details
- Cody: ECIP1121 aims to align Ethereum Classic with Ethereum Mainnet and other EVMs by implementing opcodes and code-based changes that set gas limits and blocks
- Cody: These changes are already in the CoreGeth client since it’s been merged from upstream
- Cody: Implementation would require testing on the Mordor network but would need minimal development effort compared to EIP1559
- Istora: This could be a “low effort progress” that could move ahead independently of other research
- Cody: Suggested decoupling ECIP1121 from EIP1559 research, potentially setting a March deadline for progress on 1559 before proceeding with 1121
Conclusion
- Istora approved the pull request for ECIP1121
- Cody will create a discussion thread for ECIP1121
- This update would be a “nice win” for Ethereum Classic this year as it’s not controversial

Specific EIPs in ECIP1121

Detailed discussion about specific EIPs included in ECIP1121 and their implications.

Details
- Cody: Some EIPs related to blobs and blob sharding are deferred for Ethereum Classic since decisions haven’t been made about implementing them
- Cody: Several EIPs focus on execution context improvements, cryptography, and new pre-compiles
- Cody: BLS12381 curves for zero-knowledge proofs and BLS signatures verification on-chain are included
- Cody: Pre-compiles for elliptic curves (EIP7951) would allow for account abstraction beyond externally owned accounts
- Cody: Explained how pre-compiles work as special contract addresses that make cryptographic operations less expensive in terms of gas
- Istora: Asked about EIP7825, which introduces a protocol-level cap on maximum gas used by a single transaction
- Cody: Explained this cap helps prevent denial-of-service attacks where attackers could create contracts that exhaust miners’ time
Conclusion
- The gas costs for these operations would follow upstream Ethereum defaults
- The transaction gas limit cap aligns well with Ethereum Classic’s current block gas limit of 8 million
- Having a transaction cap of 16 million would work well with EIP1559’s block elasticity

Tribute to Donald McIntyre

A moment to acknowledge the passing of a significant contributor.

Details
- Istora: Announced that Donald McIntyre, a prolific contributor to Ethereum Classic, passed away on November 2, 2025
- Istora: Mentioned Bob Summerwell’s tribute to Donald on his website
Conclusion
- The community acknowledges and respects Donald’s major contributions to Ethereum Classic

Funding and Sustainability Discussion

Discussion about how to maintain client development and infrastructure.

Details
- Istora: Brought up Chris Mercer’s concerns about funding issues for client maintenance, consensus, EVM compatibility, public RPC availability, and explorer indexing
- Cody: Explained that the Co-OP is still alive and funding things, focusing on supporting ecosystem partners
- Cody: Mentioned outreach to custody providers like Fire Blocks, Anchorage, and DFNS
- Cody: Noted that client maintenance is a concern, with CoreGeth as the main client and ETC grants funding some developers
- Cody: Discussed how Diego has been working with other clients like Nevermind and Basu
- Cody: Explained that funding open source development is a common problem across projects
- Istora: Asked about monetizing the multi-sig wallet that the Co-OP operates
- Cody: Explained that the Co-OP runs on donations and is designed to work that way, with monetization potentially jeopardizing its charter as a taxable entity
Conclusion
- The Co-OP can continue to maintain nodes for the foreseeable future
- Projects running in the Ethereum Classic ecosystem could potentially donate back to the Co-OP
- Bitmain and ETC grants are separate from the Co-OP and focus on ecosystem expansion and education rather than client maintenance

AI-Assisted Development Approach

Discussion about using AI tools to accelerate development.

Details
- Istora: Suggested using AI tools to implement features, especially with reference implementations available in other clients
- Cody: Shared experience using Cloud Code for the Fukui client, adding features between Magneto fork and Spiral fork
- Cody: Explained that AI is good at reading codebases and making patches when given well-written specs
- Istora: Suggested having multiple implementations to enhance validation
- Cody: Noted that his role is often defining constraints and tests rather than writing code directly
Conclusion
- AI tools could help non-specialized developers create working implementations that could later be reviewed by experts
- This approach could be more economical for development going forward

Testing Environment Setup

Discussion about setting up a testing environment for client development.

Details
- Istora: Expressed interest in setting up an environment for non-Go developers to implement and test features
- Cody: Mentioned Ethereum’s Hive test harness for end-to-end testing of execution clients
- Cody: Explained that Hive pulls clients in as Docker images from Docker Hub or builds them from the latest version
- Istora: Suggested this could be useful for testing ECIP1121 implementation
Conclusion
- Cody will look into adapting the Hive testing suite for Ethereum Classic
- This would help with testing both ECIP1121 and future developments

Community Call Schedule

Brief discussion about changing the timing of community calls.

Details
- Istora: Suggested changing the time of the call to afternoon or evening in the US
- Cody: Confirmed he’s flexible with his schedule
- Istora: Noted that the current time is close to midnight in Japan
Conclusion
- Both agreed to find a more comfortable time for participants

Action items

Cody
- Edit and merge ECIP1121
- Create a discussion thread for ECIP1121
- Look into adapting the Ethereum Hive testing suite for Ethereum Classic
- Investigate breaking out Gorgaroth testnet functionality for Ethereum Classic testing
Community
- Develop a research plan for ECIP1120 and Olympia proposal mechanisms
- Review open PRs including ECIP1121 and the external ECIP validator gem
Istora
- Organize another community call for February
- Consider changing the community call time to be more convenient for participants