Accounts

Accounts are associated with users and smart contracts. All accounts contain the following five components:

address
These are sets of numbers used to identify accounts.
balance
All funds are associated with accounts. This is a balance of classic ether, also know as ether or ETC.
code (smart contract)
All smart contracts are associated with accounts. This component is an empty string for user accounts.
storage
All smart contracts have associated memory. This component is an empty string for user accounts.
nonce
Nonces are counters. For user accounts, these equal the number of associated transactions. For smart contract accounts, these equal the number of associated smart contracts created.

All components of all accounts together comprise the state of the world computer.

Addresses

All accounts are identified by addresses which are derived from secret random numbers unique to each account. These secret random numbers are referred to as private keys. Private keys must be kept private because they are used to digitally sign transactions from accounts. These transactions can transfer funds, create smart contracts, and, execute smart contracts. Strictly speaking, private key numbers must be between 1 and

115792089237316195423570985008687907852837564279074904382605163141518161494336

inclusive. This requirement is necessary for their use in ETC digital signatures. Some may be concerned that two users might unintentionally select the same private key. The odds of that happening are vanishingly small. In fact, the number of possible private keys is approximately equal to the number of atoms in the entire universe!

All private keys are associated 64 byte numbers derived from them which are referred to as public keys. The calculation of public keys involves an odd type of arithmetic with respect to pairs of numbers. Here is a Python script that calculates public keys from private keys:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""
Calculates ETC public keys from ETC private keys.

Usage: etc_pub_key <private key>
"""

import random
import sys

A           = 0
N           = 0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffebaaedce6af48a03bbfd25e8cd0364141
P           = 0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffefffffc2f
GX          = 0x79be667ef9dcbbac55a06295ce870b07029bfcdb2dce28d959f2815b16f81798
GY          = 0x483ada7726a3c4655da4fbfc0e1108a8fd17b448a68554199c47d08ffb10d4b8
HEXADECIMAL = 16
NUM_FORMAT  = "{{:0{}x}}".format(len(hex(P)[2:]))

def inverse(number):
        """
        Inverts a number.
        """

        inverse = 1
        power   = number
        for e in bin(P - 2)[2:][::-1]:
                if int(e):
                        inverse = (inverse * power) % P
                power = (power ** 2) % P

        return inverse

def add(pair_1, pair_2):
        """
        Adds two pairs.
        """

        if   pair_1 == "identity":
                sum_ = pair_2
        elif pair_2 == "identity":
                sum_ = pair_1
        else:
                if pair_1 == pair_2:
                        numer   = 3 * pair_1[0] ** 2 + A
                        lambda_ = (numer * inverse(2 * pair_1[1])) % P
                else:
                        numer   = pair_2[1] - pair_1[1]
                        denom   = pair_2[0] - pair_1[0]
                        lambda_ = (numer * inverse(denom)) % P
                x    = (lambda_ ** 2 - pair_1[0] - pair_2[0])  % P
                y    = (lambda_ * (pair_1[0] - x) - pair_1[1]) % P
                sum_ = (x, y)

        return sum_

def multiply(number, pair):
        """
        Multiplies a pair by a number.
        """

        product = "identity"
        power   = pair[:]
        for e in bin(number)[2:][::-1]:
                if int(e):
                        product = add(power, product)
                power = add(power, power)

        return product

def convert(pair):
        """
        Converts pairs to numbers by concatenating the elements.
        """

        return int("".join([NUM_FORMAT.format(e) for e in pair]), HEXADECIMAL)

        print(convert(multiply(int(sys.argv[1]), (GX, GY))))

The reason for this convoluted process is so that private keys cannot be derived from public keys. This allows public keys to be safely shared with anyone. If you want to learn more, investigate elliptic curve cryptography. The reason for this name is that historically it followed from calculations of the arc lengths of ellipses. Together, public and private keys are often referred to as wallets.

Addresses are formed from the first 20 bytes of the Keccak 256 hashes of public keys. These are more often used to identify accounts rather than public keys. Interestingly, public keys cannot be determined solely from addresses. Here is a Python script that calculates addresses from public keys. It requires the PySHA3 package. Addresses are typically expressed in hexadecimal notation and that convention is followed in this script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""
Calculates ETC addresses from ETC public keys.

Usage: etc_address <public key>
"""

import sha3
import binascii
import sys

N_ADDRESS_BYTES = 20
N_PUB_KEY_BYTES = 64

public_key = (int(sys.argv[1])).to_bytes(N_PUB_KEY_BYTES, byteorder = "big")
print(sha3.keccak_256(public_key).hexdigest()[-2 * N_ADDRESS_BYTES:])

Here is a slightly edited session, on a Linux computer, that calculates a public key and address with regards to a random private key. It uses the aforementioned scripts saved in files called etc_pub_key and etc_address respectively:

% PRIVATE_KEY="92788259381212812445638172234843282167646237087212249687358593145563035518424"

% PUBLIC_KEY=`etc_pub_key $PRIVATE_KEY`

% ADDRESS=`etc_address $PUBLIC_KEY`

% echo $PRIVATE_KEY
92788259381212812445638172234843282167646237087212249687358593145563035518424

% echo $PUBLIC_KEY
9808854183897174607002157792089896992612613490844656534725423301978228163634425857099752732031947328803605451685330420628756154476771607661633738743568351

% echo $ADDRESS
89b44e4d3c81ede05d0f5de8d1a68f754d73d997

Ether & Gas

To create and utilize smart contracts, user submit transactions. Transactions must pay for these services in classic ether. Classic ether can be obtained by purchasing it or by mining. The smallest denomination of classic ether used in the ETC system is 1 wei. One billion billion (10¹⁸) weis equal a single classic ether. Due to the mining reward formula, the total supply of classic ether will never exceed 210.6 million tokens.

The cost of creating and executing all smart contracts is measured in a made up unit referred to as gas units. Users submit transactions that pay for gas units in terms of classic ether. Notice that while the price of classic ether fluctuates, the price of various services in terms of gas units does not. In transactions, user specify how much classic ether they are willing to pay per gas unit. For security reasons, the amount of gas that can be purchased and used by blocks is limited.