ETCDEV is dead, long life Ethereum Classic!



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Last week it was pretty tough for proponents of immutable complete Proof of Work Turing blockchains, as the Ethereum Classic development teams split into ideological fields that affect the Group's acceptance or rejection of funding. Digital Finance. In this regard, apparently unrelated economic shots and subtle references to past events culminated in a shocking announcement: due to financial problems, ETCDEV had to interrupt its operations.

However, a FUD factor should be clarified from the start – closing a development team does not mean that the ETC project is dead or left without human resources to push it forward. If you watched Donald McIntyre's exclusive interviews, then you already know that Ethereum Classic is developed by ETCDEV (for which he worked), ETC Cooperative (whose director is Anthony Lusardi, whom we also interviewed), IOHK (which also develops Cardano and works on the interoperability between the two blockchains) and ETC Labs (an incubator for ETC projects funded by).

For a better understanding of the situation, let's put it this way: if Blockstream has ceased activity, some software engineers would lose their jobs. However, despite this unfortunate event, there are a lot of different organizations to play an active role in developing and achieving the goals on the proposed roadmap.

However, you can not act as if the news did not affect the reputation of Ethereum Classic at all, or that ETCDEV's work did not matter. In the grand scheme of things, this is a clear obstacle and, unless tensions and suspicions disappear and lead to some sort of agreement, many useful developments could be blocked. Not to mention the fact that the price of ETC has dropped to $ 4.28 on 5 December 2018, the minimum since April 2017.

Two sides of the debate: ETCDEV vs ETC Labs (and possibly ETC Cooperative)

In order to provide a broader perspective on events, the two conflicting parties have been examined and consulted. At the time of printing, the ETCDEV party was registered to answer all the questions, while ETC Labs representatives still have to respond in the same way. The people interviewed formally are Igor Artamonov (lead developer of ETCDEV), Donald McIntyre (business development at ETCDEV) and Anthony Lusardi (director of the ETC Cooperative). The first two agreed to provide public comments that were published in this article, while the second was more diplomatic, distancing himself from the conclusions until all conflicts were resolved.

However, thanks to the good will of Lusardi and other members of the community, I was allowed to read some discussions on the project's Discord channel. For ethical and privacy reasons, no screenshots or direct quotation will be published here. And since the debates still seem heated and ideological / sentimental, the rest of the investigation will focus on the facts rather than on the spread of unnecessary FUDs.

The central character in this story is Igor Artamonov, a software engineer who has long been with the Ethereum project, opposed the division of the community by hard fork during the DAO hack, and has since followed principles of immutability. He also worked as a founder and CTO of the now defunct ETCDEV team, and contributed to much of the ETC infrastructure that helped him to be listed on the stock exchange (portfolios, security protocols, etc.).

It was under Igor's leadership that the project received universal recognition at the beginning of this year with the addition of Coinbase, and the Orbita sidechain project that allows for greater scalability also belongs to to ETCDEV. However, as pointed out by some of his critics (and subtly implied in the official Twitter announcement), the team finished funding and an unfortunate series of events led to the cancellation of the team's GitHub.

Moreover, since November 27, 2018, Mr. Artamonov has published two articles in the middle that clarify the details on his reluctance to accept funding from subjects whose logic has questioned, while providing privileged information on his interactions with the DFG (Digital Finance Group). The first is a detailed view of how the budget was managed and the need for more funding, while the second piece is a simple charge of plans to hire Ethereum Classic.

As he also mentions in the exclusive interview he has done for Crypto Insider, Mr. Artamonov thinks that the migration of engineers from ETCDEV to ETC Labs, the funding problems, the cancellation of GitHub after all the administrators have been removed and # 39; Elimination of the I Average blogs are all parts of an ongoing business acquisition. Donald McIntyre confirms the statement by adding that ETCDEV was the conservative force of the ETC family, and without it there are higher chances of making the project more centralized.

The biggest problem at stake is the GitHub repository which contained all the development efforts of ETCDEV which was canceled after the representative of DFG Krykoder had obtained the role of owner. All other administrators have been removed and this action has given rise to many speculations: the ETCDEV side indicates sabotage, while the ETC Labs and ETC Cooperative perspective is that a misunderstanding has occurred somewhere in the process of communication between stakeholders in the Member States United and Shanghai.

In the short conversation outside the box that I had with the co-director of the ETC Cooperative Anthony Lusardi, he seemed genuinely convinced that there was no malice and that the whole situation of GitHub was due to misunderstood instructions. He expressed the hope that ETCDEV will continue with their work on the project, implying that it does not want the roadmap to be affected in any way, and did not make any negative comments in relation to DFG. Some of these positive and diplomatic opinions can also be found in his activity on Twitter.

As for ETC Labs, the situation seems to be slightly quieter in public terms. Yaz Khouri wrote an article to thank the efforts of the ETCDEV over the years and to express his positive feelings about the future of Ethereum Classic, while Darcy Reno presents the cancellation of GitHub from "accident or misunderstanding". No official statement has been issued to address the situation and it appears that only a few members of the team openly express their views on the situation. Perhaps they are still waiting for clarification from DFG and do not leave with a message as soon as the GitHub repository is restored and returned to its legitimate owners (as clearly stated, the files have been copied to another account and no jobs have been lost).

It would be interesting to receive more information from ETC Labs and the ETC cooperative to clarify some details about the incident, but at the time of the press Igor Artamonov does not want to return to Ethereum Classic, a large majority of ETCDEV employees have not yet signed a contract with another team, and Donald McIntyre has no intention of resuming his role under a different leadership.

Because Crypto Insider is a platform for open debate that aims to focus on the facts, this article can serve as an open invitation to further discuss events.

Regardless of what happens with ETCDEV, Ethereum Classic continues to live

Although some speculators have been prepared to declare the project's death due to the bankruptcy of the most important development team, this is clearly not the case. The ETC cooperative is funded by Barry Silbert's DCG, ETC Labs receives funds from DFG and IOHK has some own sources to raise money. The plan to have an immutable blockchain complete with Turing climbing through the sidechains is still active, and at most we can consider the ETCDEV situation as a drawback that can slow down some elements on the roadmap.

In his exclusive interview, Donald McIntyre expressed his rather pessimistic views on ETC Labs by taking a more prominent role in the Ethereum Classic project, as he views acquisition as an increase in centralization. At the same time, he acknowledged that ETH, TRON, NEO and many other intelligent contract platforms are even more centralized and successful in the market, so this probably will not be a drawback for investors and those who want to keep on building dedicated software.

On the other hand, if ETC Labs shows enough enthusiasm, energy and commitment to manage all the roadmap plans, they might surprise us all. They currently benefit from all the funding they need, are about to hire more staff and can take the Ethereum Classic project to new heights. Part of this optimism can be read in the article by Yaz Khoury, and we can only hope that a positive attitude ends up providing unexpected results.

Immutability and attention to decentralization are the core values ​​of this estranged community of the Ethereum project, and it would be a shame if none of the ambitious plans presented on the ETCDEV roadmap were implemented. Eventually, when ETCDEV fades, the torch is passed to the other teams so they can help grow this vision. Ethereum Classic does not have the workmanship of its brother project, nor does it benefit from the clamor of EOS or TRON. However, it is unique in its own way and will continue to exist as long as there is someone to develop for it.

Meanwhile, ETC Labs published a press release to summarize similar conclusions. Read here.

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