Frequently Asked Questions

ETC Wallet is an open-source wallet for the Ethereum Classic network. It lets you send, receive and manage ETC without third-party custody or signup.

Yes. ETC Wallet is free and open-source. You only pay standard network gas fees when you send a transaction — those go to ETC miners, not to us.

ETC Wallet is focused specifically on Ethereum Classic (ETC). It does not support Ethereum (ETH), ERC-20 tokens, or other blockchains. If you need a multi-chain wallet, you will need a different application.

Development updates, release notes and source code are published through the project repository and community channels.

ETC Wallet provides desktop builds for Windows, macOS and Linux. Download releases from the official downloads section and verify checksums before installing.

No. ETC Wallet does not use accounts, signup or hosted custody. Your wallet exists locally through your private key, seed phrase or encrypted keystore.

Private keys are stored locally on your device, encrypted with your passphrase using AES-256. They are never transmitted to any server. The wallet communicates with the ETC network only to broadcast signed transactions and read balances.

If you lose your passphrase, you will not be able to unlock your encrypted keystore file. Always back up your seed phrase or private key in a safe place before storing funds. ETC Wallet cannot recover access for you — there is no account system.

Yes. Restore it using your backed-up seed phrase, private key or keystore JSON file. Make sure the new device is trusted, and keep your backup offline and private.

Yes. The full source code is available on GitHub. Release builds include SHA-256 checksums so you can verify downloaded files. You can also build the wallet from source.

Download the release from the official downloads section, then compare the file SHA-256 checksum with the published checksum. If the values do not match, do not install the file.

The desktop wallet has no telemetry or address logging. The website uses Yandex Metrika for aggregate traffic analytics. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Ethereum Classic is the original, unmodified Ethereum blockchain, maintained as a proof-of-work network since the 2016 DAO fork. It operates on the principle of Code is Law — the idea that the blockchain should not be altered to reverse transactions, even significant ones. The native currency is ETC.

ETC (Ethereum Classic) and ETH (Ethereum) share the same history up to block 1,920,000 in 2016. After the DAO hack, Ethereum rolled back the chain — ETC continued the original chain unchanged. Today they are separate networks: ETH uses proof-of-stake, ETC uses proof-of-work. They are not compatible with each other.

ETC and ETH addresses have the same format, which can cause confusion. Sending ETC to an address that someone uses on Ethereum does not automatically make it available on that network. Always confirm you are using an address on the correct chain. ETC Wallet is locked to Chain ID 61 (ETC mainnet) to prevent cross-chain replay issues.

By default, ETC Wallet connects to https://etc.rivet.link and https://etc.publicnode.com. You can configure a custom RPC endpoint in wallet settings if you run your own node or prefer a different provider.

A pending transaction means it has been broadcast but not yet included in a block. This can happen if the gas price was set too low. You can wait for it to be included, or (if supported by the network at the time) replace it with a new transaction using a higher gas price and the same nonce.

ETC Wallet supports importing via private key or a standard keystore JSON file (UTC/JSON format). Go to Account → Import and follow the steps. Never import a private key on a device you do not trust.

The Ethereum Classic mainnet Chain ID is 61. This is set automatically in ETC Wallet and is included in every transaction signature to prevent replay attacks between ETC and ETH.