The Ethereum Classic (ETC) hardfork dubbed ‘Atlantis’ is almost upon us. It’s scheduled to take place on September 13, 2019, at block 8,772,000.

The Ethereum Classic development community is coming together to make the cryptocurrency’s upcoming hard fork a success. It is expected to be a major improvement by adopting Ethereum’s own ‘Byzantium’ protocol upgrade on the ETC network. Overall, it is anticipated to boost both functionality and stability.

A Large-Scale Effort

Atlantis wouldn’t be possible without coordinating a large pool of talent currently at work on the ETC hard fork. The upcoming fork involves collaborative work between clients, nodes, miners, dApp makers, and developers to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Moreover, it is bringing in major players in the Ethereum Classic space like Chainsafe System, ETC Cooperative, and ETC Labs.

According to Bob Summerwill, ETC Cooperative’s Executive Director, “the Atlantis hard fork is a huge step forward for Ethereum Classic, bringing much greater compatibility and interoperability with Ethereum, and making it easier to move dApps between the chains.” Indeed, the whole motivation behind the upgrade is greater communication between the two chains.

As of now, the Atlantis upgrade includes 10 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPS). These touch on areas such as:

Stability improvements (EIP 100)

Op-code upgrades (EIP 140, 211, and 214)

Precompiled contracts (EIP 198)

Precompiled contracts to better integrate zk-Snarks (EIP 196 and 197)

Bettering the performance of the network (EIP 161 and 170)

Security improvements (EIP 658).

With Atlantis being the first major hard fork and upgrade for Ethereum Classic, it is undoubtedly being seen as a major milestone.

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‘Atlantis’ Breathes Life into Ethereum Classic Again

It finally seems that the cobwebs are being brushed off Ethereum Classic, a cryptocurrency which previously seemed to largely exist as a ‘novelty’ original of Ethereum (ETH) proper.

At the time of writing, Ethereum Classic is trading at around $6.62 with a market capitalization of $750M. It has maintained increased trading volume throughout 2019, but has failed to breakout out significantly enough to come closer to its previous all-time high of $43.

Do you believe that Ethereum Classic has more room to grow after the Atlantis hard fork is completed? Let us know your thoughts below in the comments.

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