Add new article: Olympia Development Series Part 0

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+---
+title: "Olympia Development Series — From Draft to Testnet (Part 0)"
+date: 2025-11-11
+author: Chris Mercer
+contributors: ["chris-mercer"]
+tags: ["announcement", "hardfork", "development", "Infrastructure", "series"]
+linkImage: ./olympia_implementation.png
+excerpt: "Ethereum Classic begins the development phase of the Olympia upgrade—its first on-chain, self-funding Proof-of-Work framework for sustainable development."
+---
+
+![](./olympia-development-series.png)
+
+# Olympia Development Series — From Draft to Testnet (Part 0)
+**November 11, 2025**
+
+## Part 0: The Transition from Research to Reality
+
+It’s fitting that this transition begins on **11/11** — a date that mirrors the number at the heart of Olympia’s foundation: **ECIP-1111**.  
+On this day, often celebrated as a symbol of alignment and renewal, **The Olympia authors move from years of research into the first phase of implementation work.**
+
+After nearly a decade of debate and experimentation, Ethereum Classic enters a new phase of maturity.
+
+The **Olympia upgrade suite (ECIPs 1111–1114)** — discussed in various forms from 2016 through 2024 and formally proposed in 2025 — has evolved from a series of conceptual drafts into a coordinated, step-by-step implementation plan now preparing for **testnet deployment**.
+
+This milestone marks the first time in Ethereum Classic’s history that the network will integrate an **opt-in, voluntary, protocol-native, non-inflationary funding system** directly into its consensus logic.
+
+In November 2025, this suite expanded with **ECIP-1115**, an optional governance-layer L-curve smoothing mechanism designed to stabilize miner incentives without modifying consensus.
+
+Olympia represents the culmination of a long-standing goal: establishing a **sustainable, decentralized mechanism** to fund client development, public infrastructure, and ecosystem maintenance.
+
+## Why Olympia Matters
+
+Proof-of-Work networks face a fundamental long-term challenge: as block subsidies decline, miner incentives must increasingly depend on transaction fees to maintain network security.
+
+Ethereum Classic’s fee market does not yet provide the stable, predictable incentives needed to align miners, developers, and users around lasting network security.
+
+In the absence of such alignment, **donation-based funding** has remained the fallback — a model that has repeatedly proven fragile, with major development teams dissolving every few years throughout ETC’s history — often leaving community volunteers to maintain core infrastructure until new teams emerged.
+
+Olympia introduces a framework that unites all participants — miners, developers, and ecosystem contributors — around a transparent, self-sustaining fee market, while giving the traditional donation model a clearer, more accountable path for continued support.  
+Through the optional **ECIP-1115**, this fee market can also be supplemented with a governance-configurable smoothing mechanism that distributes a portion of BASEFEE-derived revenue to miners over time.
+
+It establishes an on-chain system that reveals the baseline funding requirements necessary for Ethereum Classic to function reliably for:
+
+- **Miners** — secure the network and rely on stable clients, predictable income streams, and liquid markets to convert rewards into operating capital.  
+- **Core Developers** — maintain clients and tooling and rely on open, auditable funding and proposal systems to contribute effectively.  
+- **Donors and Ecosystem Sponsors** — support the network’s growth but seek a transparent, on-chain funding system that replaces costly, centralized grant models and prevents any single entity from becoming the network’s de facto maintainer.  
+- **Off-Chain Services** — provide institutional and financial infrastructure through exchanges, custodians, and TradFi integrations that depend on modern, well-maintained clients.  
+- **Application Developers** — expand demand for blockspace and rely on a modern, actively maintained EVM that remains interoperable with upstream tooling and programmability.  
+- **End Users** — depend on stable, secure systems to transact efficiently, self-custody assets, and enjoy a first-class user experience.
+
+## Beyond Funding — Aligning Incentives in Proof-of-Work
+
+Yet Olympia goes beyond funding alone — it also addresses the economic alignment problem at the heart of Proof-of-Work itself: the long-term incentive structure that ensures miner participation and network security.
+
+By introducing an **opt-in transaction type** that redirects `BASEFEE` revenue into a **network treasury**, Olympia ties the health of the fee market directly to the security of the chain.
+
+As part of the broader Olympia framework, the optional **ECIP-1115** introduces a governance-layer L-curve smoothing model that spreads a configurable portion of Treasury-held BASEFEE across a defined window of future blocks.
+
+This model creates steadier income for miners by spreading fee rewards over several blocks and providing predictable revenue, while also channeling a portion of the `BASEFEE` into sustainable core development funding.
+
+In essence, Olympia introduces a single, elegant mechanism to solve two of Proof-of-Work’s oldest challenges:
+
+1. **Securing miners’ long-term incentives**  
+2. **Ensuring continuous, decentralized development**
+
+**Shared principle:**
+
+> When on-chain activity grows, so do the incentives that sustain miners, fund development, and strengthen the network as a whole.
+
+With the **optional smoothing model**, miners enjoy steady fee flows even as block rewards decline — reinforcing network security — while the same `BASEFEE` revenue supports client maintenance, infrastructure, and ecosystem growth.  
+Because smoothing operates entirely at the governance layer, it can be activated, tuned, or disabled without additional protocol changes, giving ETC flexibility as fee-market dynamics evolve.
+
+In addition, Olympia’s new transaction type preserves **compatibility with modern wallet and exchange standards**, ensuring Ethereum Classic remains fully integrated within the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem — from centralized exchanges to open-source browser wallets.
+
+## The Significance of 11 / 11
+
+**Olympia Day — 11 / 11 / 2025** marks the moment Ethereum Classic beginsthe implementation work for the Olympia upgrade suite.  
+Just as ECIP-1111 anchors the technical foundation of Olympia, 11/11 now anchors its timeline — signifying the transition from theory to practice, from drafts to deployment.
+
+On this date, Ethereum Classic reaffirms its role as **the programmable Proof-of-Work network built to last**, aligning security, sustainability, and self-sovereignty within a single, immutable system.
+
+## The Four Pillars of Olympia
+
+The Olympia upgrade suite is built on four coordinated ECIPs, each addressing a specific layer of Ethereum Classic’s sustainability and governance model:
+
+### 🔹 ECIP-1111 — BASEFEE Redirection & Modernized Fee Mechanics
+
+The foundation of Olympia. ECIP-1111 introduces the **EIP-1559 fee mechanism** into Ethereum Classic while redirecting the burned `BASEFEE` to a **protocol-level treasury**.  
+The new transaction type is **opt-in, voluntary, and fully additive**, with legacy transaction types (Type-0 and Type-1) continuing to function unchanged.
+
+This adaptation maintains full **EVM compatibility** while ensuring every transaction strengthens ETC’s sustainability instead of removing value from circulation.
+
+Additional miner-alignment mechanisms — including the optional smoothing model defined in **ECIP-1115** — may build on this foundation but are not part of ECIP-1111’s consensus-layer scope.
+
+### 🔹 ECIP-1112 — The Immutable Treasury Contract
+
+Defines a **minimal, immutable, protocol-level smart contract** that receives all redirected `BASEFEE` revenue.  
+This contract functions as **Ethereum Classic’s first on-chain funding vault**, with transparent accounting and no administrative keys.  
+Every coin received is **auditable, visible, and governed by protocol logic alone.**
+
+### 🔹 ECIP-1113 — The Olympia DAO Governance Framework
+
+Establishes the **Olympia DAO**, a modular governance framework to manage treasury disbursements through **on-chain voting**, **quorum thresholds**, and **time-locked execution**.  
+It introduces the **Olympia Improvement Proposal (OIP)** process — a structured way to evolve governance, deploy new child-DAO pipelines, or modify parameters without new hard forks.
+
+### 🔹 ECIP-1114 — The Funding Proposal and Disbursement System
+
+Defines the **Ethereum Classic Funding Proposal (ECFP)** standard — the interface between contributors and the treasury.  
+Any developer, researcher, or organization can submit a proposal with milestones, budgets, and on-chain progress tracking.
+
+Approved proposals are executed automatically through the DAO, ensuring transparent, auditable, and milestone-based disbursements that remove the friction and opacity of manual grant programs.
+
+### 🔹 ECIP-1115 — Optional L-Curve Smoothing (Governance-Layer Miner Incentives)
+
+Defines a **governance-layer mechanism** that allocates a configurable share of Treasury-held BASEFEE to miners as a long-term security budget.  
+ECIP-1115 introduces **no consensus changes** and complements ECIP-1111 by smoothing Treasury-based miner rewards across a predictable window.  
+Activation and parameter tuning occur entirely through the **Olympia DAO** via the OIP process.
+
+### 🔁 Together, these four ECIPs form a closed-loop system:
+
+- **Revenue generation** through network activity  
+- **Secure custody** of funds  
+- **Decentralized governance** via Olympia DAO  
+- **Transparent funding** of public goods  
+
+This architecture transforms Ethereum Classic from a **donor-dependent network** into a **self-funding, self-governing public utility** — powered by on-chain activity and aligned incentives.  
+(ECIP-1115 extends this loop by optionally smoothing miner incentives at the governance layer, without altering the consensus-level foundation.)
+
+## Pioneering PoW: A First Among Proof-of-Work Networks
+
+While most PoW chains rely on centralized foundations or off-chain grants, **Ethereum Classic can now finance its own evolution through protocol logic**.
+
+Olympia demonstrates what only a **smart-contract-capable Proof-of-Work network** can achieve — a sustainable economic loop that rewards security, development, and utility, **without inflation or trusted intermediaries**.
+
+It preserves the values that defined ETC in 2016 — **immutability, Proof-of-Work, and credible neutrality** — while finally addressing the long-standing challenges of decentralized, durable funding and long-term network security.
+
+With **ECIP-1115**, ETC can optionally extend this sustainability loop into miner incentives themselves, providing a mechanism for **predictable, non-inflationary security budgeting.**
+
+## The Road Ahead
+
+This series, **Implementing Olympia: From Draft to Testnet**, will chronicle the transition from concept to code.  
+Over the coming months, we’ll explore:
+
+- The engineering of the **ECIP-1111 BASEFEE redirection logic**  
+- The design and audit of the **ECIP-1112 Treasury Contract**  
+- The structure and deployment of the **ECIP-1113 DAO Framework**  
+- The workflow and transparency of the **ECIP-1114 Funding Process**  
+- The optional **ECIP-1115 smoothing mechanism** and how governance can configure long-term miner-reward curves without modifying consensus  
+
+Together, these explorations document how Olympia moves from draft to deployed code — setting the stage for **mainnet activation**.
+
+Each installment will take readers deeper into the contracts, logic, and governance systems now moving toward ETC’s testnets — showing how Olympia is being implemented to be **auditable, adaptable, and permanently decentralized.**
+
+## A Bright Future: The Olympia Implementation Era Begins
+
+**Olympia Day — 11 / 11 / 2025** marks the moment Ethereum Classic begins the development phase of the Olympia upgrade suite.  
+Olympia is not a single hard fork; it’s the start of a **living framework** where on-chain activity directly powers network longevity.
+
+For miners, developers, ecosystem sponsors, and long-time community members alike, this marks a return to Ethereum Classic’s founding ethos:
+
+> “A credibly neutral, self-sustaining Proof-of-Work network built to last — secured by miners, maintained by builders, supported by institutions, and enforced by code.”
+
+## Next in the Series
+
+👉 **Developing ECIP-1111: BASEFEE Redirection & Modernized Fee Mechanics**
+
+💚⚒️  
+*Olympia ECIP Authors & ETC Contributors*