The Ethereum Classic Cooperative (ETC Cooperative for short) has just released their latest biannual report on their progress to help Ethereum Classic grow and become a top choice for DApp producers. In the report, the group states that they currently have a surplus supply of cash and they are actively using it to draw attention to the project via sponsorships and by hiring developers to make improvements among other things. Their social media following has more than doubled, and daily transaction rates are soaring.

State of the ETC Blockchain

Here's how we've been improving $ETC Too much for a tweet so take a look at the full report with your eyeballs. Full report: https://t.co/LkPKoLlxqu Announcement: https://t.co/UOqiHxGhAG https://t.co/dbu6HLBake — ETC Cooperative (@ETCCooperative) July 9, 2018

Much like the classic state of the union address given by the US president, the ETC Cooperative releases a report every six-months detailing their successes, failures, and their plans for the future. Ethereum Classic has been a hot topic in cryptocurrency for the last few weeks following the announcement that Coinbase would be listing the asset in the near future.

The ETC Cooperative is, in many ways, analogous to the Ethereum Foundation headed by notable individuals like Vitalik Buterin. Led by Anthony Lusardi, the cooperative is in the process of becoming a US nonprofit organization that will potentially allow them to receive tax-deductible donations in the near future if successful with the filing.

According to the report, the group has an annual positive cash flow of $375,000, and is currently sitting on a USD cash reserve of $700,000.

Growing the Green

Most of the report is dedicated to what the team has done, what they are doing, and areas where they feel they need to develop. It also details how they are spending their budget including donations they have received. Let’s go over some of those points now.

Successes

The goal of the cooperative is to support the ETC “community, development, and marketing efforts within the Ethereum Classic ecosystem” with the intention of making it better by “removing pain points and obstacles that interfere with ETC’s current and future users”.

With that in mind, the group notes that their social media following has grown significantly, with their sub Reddit and Twitter accounts seeing increases of up to 70%. The blockchain itself has seen a 175% increase in average transactions per day, or about 47,000 every 24 hours. For some context, Ethereum sees about 10 times that amount each day.

Read also: Beginners Guide to Ethereum Vs. Ethereum Classic

Stated also in the report is a list of enhancements that the group is made to the technology behind the blockchain.

Specifically, there’s been a lot of development on the etherhub.io site, improvements have been made to boot nodes, and a system has been developed that will help major stakeholders get alerts on when critical updates come out. The team has also revamped their primary website, EthereumClassic.org and launched a new site EthereumClassicAsia.org that is designed to specifically provide native language information for China, Japan, and South Korea.

Failures

The report also mentions a number of areas with the project that are “undermaintained”.

Those include the lack of multiple block explorers, coordinating updates with miners and exchanges was not smooth, the primary website was outdated until recently, a number of language groups were “underserved”, and perhaps most importantly, “ETC was largely seen as separate to the broader Ethereum community”.

Perhaps it is this last one that is the most poignant. Indeed if Ethereum Classic is able to get in touch with the existing Ethereum community, such as developers and entrepreneurs, it could be easier for them to encourage more projects to make use of it as it does offer a number of financial and technological benefits over Ethereum due in part to the fact that the chain is in some ways underutilized when it comes to decentralized applications.

One major advantage Ethereum Classic has is that any code that is written for Ethereum can function exactly the same within Ethereum Classic, and so developers who already have skills with Ethereum development already have this necessary skills to write software or contracts for ETC.

Plans for the Future

The report then details the six primary goals that the group will be focusing on for its next six-month timeline.

Those goals include completing in-progress programs, increasing outreach and marketing attempts, getting better in touch with different language groups, developing a working relationship with a number of industries that could benefit from using ETC, building closer ties between the different ETC teams, and hiring more staff to support additional projects.

In other words, if you’re looking for a job in the blockchain space, you might want to take a look at the ETC Cooperative.

The report closes by mentioning that the group received a “very generous donation” from Digital Finance Group and Grayscale, an investment company that operates the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust. The group has a goal of receiving $1.75 million in donations for the year, of which they claim to have already received half.

Final Thoughts

Ethereum Classic has come a long way since it first came into existence. It’s gone from something that was worth just a few pennies each, to something that is becoming somewhat of a star child for many in the cryptocurrency world.

But it’s not all sunshine and roses, however, as Ethereum Classic still has a long way to go if it’s ever going to catch up with its much bigger cousin. By all accounts, it appears that the goal of the ETC Cooperative is not to defeat or unseat Ethereum, but instead to find its own unique space in the ever-growing blockchain industry.