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.

TransferCoin is a digital currency with a hybrid PoW and PoS consensus mechanism. TransferCoin uses the X11 encryption algorithm and has a relatively fast block time.