ETC - new Ethereum Classic ticker symbol

2016.07.22 Arvicco

Now that we moved through the most difficult part of the post-fork transition and ensured our chain survival, we may focus on other things. Like branding, for example. Some people have noticed that I've started to use ETC ticker for Ethereum Classic instead of ETH-C. Why? Here is the rationale.

ETH-C ticker served us well in the process of HF transition. When we tried to explain the difference between pre-forked and post-forked tokens to the community, we could say that legacy ETH 'splits' into two separate tokens, namely ETH-F and ETH-C. It was logically consistent and helped us to convey our idea.

After the transition happened, there is a problem with this narrative however: 'ETH-F' does not really exist. All the exchanges assigned 'ETH' ticker to the forked Ethereum, even if many people consider it incorrect, with the original Ethereum chain still very much alive. So, 'ETH-F' just isn't real. And so is 'ETH-C'.

• In crypto-trading world, a four-letter ticker conveys inferiority, like a second-class citizen. We don't want our ticker to be seen similar to some shitty 2nd rate altcoins.

• We don't want to be second rate. Ethereum Classic has all the necessary components and a clear potential to grow into a major smart contract execution platform that is used by many types of dapps that critically depend on censorship-resistance. Dapps that are neither comfortable nor welcome on the forked blockchain, "mutable by democratic consensus". And we want our ticker to reflect this ambition early on.

• Three-letter codes are entrenched standard in forex/currency world. Most of the forex infrastructure is tied to these restrictions.

• Ah, yes, standards. ISO 4217 Currency Codes only allows for 3-letter codes. Only major crypto-currencies that follow this convention will be acceptable to wider financial system down the road. All the rest would have to change their ticker mid-way.

• Even in crypto-trading, some of the tools, trackers and exchanges don't even support non-standard 4 letter codes. You can see BTC, LTC, ETH, but not DOGE, BTCD or USDT there.

• ETC (EThereum Classic) contrasts well to ETH ticker which is claimed by the forked chain, without looking second-rate to it. At the same time, this ticker has 'a look and feel' of important coins such as BTC, LTC... ETC?

• The ticker ETC is miraculously not yet claimed by other cryptos. Which is very fortunate.

This are the main points supporting a view that transition to ETC as a main ticker for Ethereum Classic is a very good idea. Of course, you are free to use ETH-C in a narrative that contrasts it with a forked ETH-F or any other way. But for the obvious reasons given above (and some less obvious), ETC makes so much more sense as a main/trading ticker for Ethereum Classic.