ETC Labs, a San Francisco-based incubator for Ethereum Classic (ETC) related projects, has announced that a new team of developers will be working on maintaining and improving the Turing Complete, proof-of-work (PoW)-based blockchain network.

According to ETC team’s official blog post, the newly appointed group of developers will be working on core Ethereum Classic projects. Operating under the name ETC Labs Core, the development team will be tasked with supporting Ethereum Classic’s blockchain.

ETC Labs Core will also focus on facilitating the development of decentralized applications (dApps) on Ethereum Classic’s platform. Additionally, the core developers will support other services related the blockchain network’s maintenance including mining.

ETC Coop, ETC Labs, IOHK To Work On Ethereum Classic Upgrades

During Q1 2019, ETC Labs Core will be “reviewing” Ethereum’s (ETH) upcoming Constantinople hard fork, “prior to finalizing” ECIP-1045 which proposes a “subset” of “Byzantine and Constantinople upgrades.”

After consulting with IOHK (an engineering firm that helps develop crypto-related projects for “academic institutions, government entities and corporations”), ETC Coop (an organization that “financially supports” the “development of the Ethereum Classic protocol”), other organizations focused ETC’s growth, and the cryptocurrency’s community members, the ETC Labs Core group will reportedly announce a block number at which Ethereum Classic’s upgrades will be activated.

ETC Labs Core will also be working on security related issues which includes developing an improved protocol to prevent 51% attacks. As CryptoGlobe reported on January 8th, Coinbase stopped all ETC withdrawals and deposits after Coinbase’s security team reportedly “detected a deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain.”

Preventing Future 51% Attacks, Improving ETC Protocol

The San Francisco-headquartered exchange company confirmed (on January 5th) that an attacker had engaged in “double spending” his ETC coins. Notably, Coinbase also found “8 additional reorganizations that included double spends, totaling 88,500 ETC (~$460,000).”

At first, ETC’s development team had denied reports about the 51% attack. The developers had also claimed that double spending did not occur on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. In order to prevent user funds from being stolen, ETC developers had asked all crypto exchanges and mining pools to halt withdrawals and deposits and/or significantly increase confirmation times before releasing funds.

As covered, ETCDEV, a leading organization supporting the development of Ethereum Classic, was forced to shut down their operations (in December 2018) due to lack of funding. However, Ethereum Classic is an open-source project, meaning anyone can contribute to improving its protocol. Large organizations such as IOHK still appear to be interested in supporting the growth of Ethereum Classic, which could potentially help improve its underlying technology and also encourage more users to build ETC-based dApps.