Ethereum Classic Cooperative Warns Public Against Apparent Hard Fork Scam

An Ethereum Classic (ETC) development organization is warning the public against a possible scam that is attempting to exploit users the day after the altcoin completed its hard fork.

In a tweet posted by the ETC Cooperative on Jan. 13, they ousted an alleged scam calling itself “EAgharta” in resonance with ETC’s bona fide “Agharta” hard fork:

“Needless to say, ‘EAgharta’ is a complete scam, probably from the same people who did something very similar at Atlantis. Stay away.  ETC Agharta did not result in new ‘Agharta coins.’ They are just trying to scam you.”

Fraudsters say “make Ethereum Classic great again!”

On Jan. 12, Ethereum Classic had activated the Agharta hard fork, which aims to improve interoperability with protocol changes introduced to its blockchain via its Constantinople and St. Petersburg upgrades last year.

The occasion of the hard fork appears to have spurred the malign actors behind EAgharta to attempt to exploit the event and peddle fraudulent proprietary “Agharta” coins. New tokens have, as ETC Cooperative emphasizes, not in fact been created as part of the network’s hard fork.

To warn users, ETC Cooperative posted a screenshot of EAgharta’s Twitter handle and its solicitations to users to “safely claim Ethereum Classic #Agharta (ETC Hard Fork).” 

The Twitter handle links to the scheme’s site and its Trumpian byline of “Agharta Hardfork - make Ethereum Classic great again!” 

Once users enter the site, it prompts them to enter and save a password in order to ostensibly create a new, dedicated wallet. Etcagharta.org maintains it does not hold users’ keys on their behalf: 

“We cannot access accounts, recover keys, reset passwords, nor reverse transactions. Protect your keys & always check that you are on correct URL [sic.]”

The ETC Cooperative is an organization that oversees and deploys funds from Grayscale Investments for the development of the ETC network. The cooperative’s spending policy supports the development of the Ethereum Classic network, infrastructure and related applications.

Historic forks

Ethereum Classic’s name itself derives from the highly contentious hard forking of the Ethereum Network in 2016 in the wake of the DAO scandal. 

“Classic” refers to the fact that the altcoin runs on the original version of the blockchain — before the time of the fork —  and was added to the cryptocurrency’s name to distinguish it from its ultimately more famous successor, Ether (ETH).

With Ether currently ranked largest altcoin by market cap, Ethereum Classic lags some way behind in 19th place. It is trading at $5.42, seeing virtually no change over the 24 hours before press time.