Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin Addresses 'Classic' Blockchain

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin issued new statements today reiterating that the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit founded to support development work on the ethereum protocol, will support the version of the ethereum blockchain that includes a hard fork meant to enable investors to recover funds lost in the collapse of The DAO.

Founded in June 2014, the Swiss organization (formally called Stiftung Ethereum) has been largely quiet over the last month as the community sought to move forward from the collapse of The DAO, which for a brief time was the platform’s most prominent project, holding at one time $160m in investor capital denominated in ether, ethereum's cryptocurrency.

Most immediately, the statements quell uncertainty about whether the Ethereum Foundation would support both the primary ethereum blockchain, as well as Ethereum Classic, a version being maintained with the original transaction history.

Overall, the organization has elected to stand by the informal community voting that lead to the hard fork, executed roughly one week ago, while indicating it would not seek to hinder progress on any alternative ethereum projects, such as Ethereum Classic.

Buterin wrote:

"We recognize that the ethereum code can be used to instantiate other blockchains with the same consensus rules, including testnets, consortium and private chains, clones and spin-offs, and have never been opposed to such instantiations."

Buterin used the remainder of the announcement to discuss how technical users could ensure clients were formatted for use with their desired version of the ethereum blockchain.

Further, Buterin encouraged the Ethereum Classic team to execute an additional hard fork that would guard its blockchain from ‘replay attacks’ by moving classic ethers, or the currency units on the alternative blockchain, to new accounts.

At press time, reaction to the post was mixed, with users largely split over ideological lines that mirrored the larger debate across the ecosystem in recent days.

For example, on reddit, some praised the new clarity from the foundation. Others, by contrast, sought to reiterate support for Ethereum Classic as an implementation of the protocol that best represents the values of the ethereum project as a whole.

Image via ethereum