Despite CryptoKitties, Ethereum’s first mainstream use-case, and the recent spotlight of Bitcoin’s price hike, ETC stealthily booms as a low-profile dark horse. As the hard fork took place on 20th July 2017, the currency policies of ETH and ETC that share the twin code went separate ways. Without a limit, the supply of ETH would continue to grow while the total supply of ETC was stated not to exceed 230 million, a policy that followed the tradition of Austrian economic theory and took a page out of bitcoin’s playbook.

Less Tokens, Price U-turns

The release of the reduction policy was good news for ETC market which led a token price soar. After the fork, the price of ETC hit a new high of $34, up from the range between $9 and $12. Boosted by this news, ETC price turned out to be bullish within a short time, which was a breakthrough compared with the original issue price and also marked a price return. Within this same time frame, the price of ETH only rallied by 60%.

ETC Supply Reduction Plan

ETC Global Summit took place in Hong Kong on the 13th November, resulted a reaffirmation of the ETC Digital Asset Currency Policy and Economic Model. Subject to ECIP-1017, ETC production would be reduced by 20%. A percentage of output cut per 5 million blocks would remain regular to make ETC reduction normal until total token supply hit between 210 and 220 million. Given this supply control, ETC inflation would be effectively checked.

Less Supply, Pricier ETC

So far, more ETH are issued while less ETC can be expected in the market. As ancient Chinese said , “Less is dearer”, the total supply of digital asset will lead to the increase in value. As the ETC demand and usage increases, so does the price and appeal. For this, Bitcoin can be seen as the best example. ETH defeated ETC in price war with a preceding advantage. In the long run, ETH’s excess supply from its unlimited supply policy will eventually cool down the investment fever, and will be edged out by ETH’s preemptive strength, as the market slowly recognises ETC’s true value. Price wise, Barry Silbert, a digital currency mogul, once posted a tweet, implying that ETC would be pricier than ETH with signs showing that the trend is merely a matter of time.

A Safer ETC Network

ETC network is safer than ETH’s as ETC miners use POW rather than POS. Consensus is the core of blockchain. The proof-of-work-based blockchain has been proven in the market as having the best mechanism that supports 8 of the top 10 cryptographic coins by market cap. POW allows mining at miners’ discretion whilst POS leaves late miners finding nowhere to proceed. The POW-based ETC will attract more miners, make nodes connected to any dynamic networks fruitful, and the network safer.

ETC Booms with IOT

Currently, the application of ETC can be seen in IOT and fueling IOT’s demand. Where ETC gets more data flows from IOT devices, its value will continue to rise. As Grayscale, a sponsor of ETC Investment Trust, stated in the paper released this August, “We believe that one day ETC will become the foundation of the globalized, secure and decentralized IOT.” By 2025, if ETC can obtain 10% data flows from IOT devices, each token will be priced at approximately $150.” Besides, unlike the new favorite IOTA, ETC has unmatched universal value and provides more powerful support to IOT apps. Regarding price, there are price bubble and bugs of the highly centralized IOTA. ETC, the well-established, decentralized digital currency, will undoubtedly beat IOTA in market cap and ETC’s price will be in the positive territory where the quote of this token will be dozens of times the previous high.