Energi Coin is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) cryptocurrency that combines smart contracts, decentralized governance, and a self-funding treasury. Energi was founded by Tommy World Power, with the goal of creating a more sustainable cryptocurrency that had the potential for mass adoption. Energi Coin's funding model is a built-in to the protocol and fuels the growth of the project. Aa portion of freshly-mined coins is assigned to the Treasury. The treasury allows the project to fund not only development, but also support, operations, and marketing. The founder, Tommy World Power personally funded the initial development of the project. Energi is currently shifting to a Solidity-based smart contract platform that will combine all of Ethereum’s existing capabilities with Energi’s unique governance and treasury model.

Ethereum Classic is the original protocol of Ethereum. As a result of the massive hack on the Ethereum-based DAO, in which around 14% of all ETH in circulation were stolen, a hard fork was proposed to return the stolen funds to their owners. This caused an ideological split revolving around the question of changing previous transactions in the blockchain. Some Ethereum holders rejected the hard fork, and decided to keep using the original protocol, based on the principle that the blockchain is immutable, and cannot be changed.