Anyone with a finger on the pulse of Ethereum will see that the community relationship between the newly hard forked Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) is complicated. Having successfully forked the protocol in late June and achieved what was initially considered a success, anti-governance Ethereum users have adopted ETC, the untouched brother of ETH where the ‘hacker funds’ are still residing.

The rise of ETC has resulted in enormous uncertainty for ETH, wiping out the original price gains that were made from the hard fork. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has commented on the new coin, stating that he welcomes the new version of Ethereum, but will continue focusing his efforts on ETH and in particular, the upcoming Proof of Stake protocol (called Casper – read how it works).

While ETC is causing some problems for ETH investors right now, ETC does not show any sign of producing a serious development team. Without this clear leadership or a unique value proposition, there is little more that ETC can do outside of being traded or held as a ‘protest vote’. In the current circumstances, the long term outlook for ETC is not all that positive; but with so much attention, perhaps leaders will emerge with a compelling vision.