Solution I. Decentralize All The (Possible) Things

Sadly, in today’s world, there are some things which are impractical to decentralize. Domain names, for example, are explicitly controlled by a single entity — a person, an organization, or a corporation — and there are no viable ways (that I know of) to maintain decentralized control of such assets.

There are other parts of our ecosystem like the GitHub organization (ethereumproject or ethereumclassic depending whether you want ETC Labs’ sole controlled version or the community version) which would have been easier to distribute. Mango is an interesting implementation of git using the EVM which could be up with multisig access controls, and GitTorrent offers similar benefits over the torrent protocol.

For anyone with the ability to code (like me), one way to contribute is to become a developer on one of the many projects attached to the project — whether that’s distributed applications, wallet software, or core node software. The more coders we have who aren’t associated with one of the major development teams, the less we are at their mercy.

For anyone with the hardware, running your own full node helps the network to remain decentralized, and mining helps to keep it secure.

Whilst we’re on the subject of funding, crowdfunding has been a phenomenon the world over, with Kickstarter, Patreon, et al comprising a sizeable chunk of the digital economy and providing many people with their livelihoods. Each ETC holder may not have a stockpile of gold to take on a hedge fund, but by coming together and crowdfunding developers & influencers who share our values, we can make our voices heard.

Whether this takes the form of a Patreon-esque ‘monthly subscription’, a new DAO, or a bounty system — or even a combination of the three — is a discussion I’m largely agnostic to. The only things I feel strongly about are that the funding system should be on-chain (to avoid the meddling of credit card processors and companies like Patreon) and it should be voluntary.

I touched on IOHK’s Treasury proposal earlier, but I think it’s important to bring up here because it always comes up in discussions about how to fund development and community outreach. I’m not in favor of this type of solution, primarily because it isn’t voluntary and involves trading off security (which in the aftermath of a 51% attack seems like an even worse idea than it did a while ago), but secondarily because it’s an expensive and inelegant solution to a fairly simple problem.

Solution II. Share ETC with Everyone & Make Your Voice Heard

Perhaps you’re not a developer, you’re not sitting on a pile of high-end hardware, and you don’t have the money to invest in Ethereum Classic’s future. What can you do to help protect our chain? Outreach efforts and suggestions.

Blogging, networking with blockchain & fintech groups, attending meetups, giving talks at conferences — there are many ways to ensure that Ethereum Classic gets onto, and stays on, peoples’ radar. You can be a force multiplier in driving interest to the ecosystem which not only helps efforts to keep ETC decentralized, but drives users to dApps, which in turn will attract developers.

Maybe you’re a UX designer or have ideas which can make ETC applications more approachable for end users. Discussing these with developers and with entrepreneurial types could be the start of a “CryptoKitties”-like phenomenon and push ETC closer to the mainstream.

Solution III. Treat Each Other with Respect

For us to disagree is normal. Some of us like the treasury, some don’t. Some of us like ETC Labs, some don’t. I think it’s essential to assume that the person you’re speaking to wants a good outcome for ETC unless they’ve stated or shown you otherwise.

Robust debate is a healthy thing, but it should stay on ideas and facts, and not go down the route of personal attacks and unsubstantiated allegations. I have no particular love for our sister chain, but reading about the way Afri — an active Ethereum developer and contributor — was abused by a small minority in their community for having an opinion made me sad. It should not require cross-chain letters condemning this kind of abuse for people to realize it’s bad.

I’m not saying anything this bad has happened in ETC — for the most part, I think we’re a pretty robust bunch who say what we think and think what we say — but some of the “discussions” I’ve seen on Discord & Twitter have been substance minimalist and offered nothing of value to anyone.

Far more unites us than separates us, and looking for compromise and solutions is the way ETC will reach the heights we know it can.