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.

Diamond (DMD) is a Proof-of-Stake coin focused on scarcity. Their marketing materials emphasize the limited circulation of the coin, and the benefits of the network's incentivized cloud mining system, which rewards users for contributing their computing resources.

Peercoin is the first Proof-of-Stake (PoS) cryptocurrency. It was created in 2012 and is one of the oldest and most reliable cryptocurrency networks in the crypto sector. The protocol was developed by Sunny King and Scott Nadel, both of whom are anonymous. Sunny King also created Primecoin and VEE.
Peercoin’s PoS consensus mechanism is now widely used in the blockchain space, and allows every network participant to be both a miner or an owner. The project is focused on creating a cryptocurrency platform that will be stable, secure, energy efficient, and distributed fairly.