EarlyChainLetterSmall

Deployed at block 49936 on August 7, 2015, this contract is the smaller-denomination companion to the 10-ETH chain-letter contract at 0xa327075af2a223a1c83a36ada1126afe7430f955, both created by address 0x881b0a4e9c55d08e31d8d3C022144d75A454211c within the same session. The deployer created three contracts in rapid succession: MyScheme (block 49924), the 10-ETH variant (block 49931), and this smaller variant (block 49936).

The contract shares the same architecture as its companion: a queue-based redistribution mechanism with a getNumInvestors() function tracking participant count. It uses a lower deposit threshold, making it accessible to participants unwilling or unable to commit 10 ETH. The lower barrier attracted substantially more participants: internal transaction records show over 10,000 ETH transfer events, compared to approximately 1,300 for the 10-ETH version.

The contract received deposits from multiple distinct addresses throughout 2015 and 2016, with the redistribution pattern visible in the internal transaction history. This higher participation rate relative to the larger-denomination contract reflects how entry price shaped adoption in early Ethereum financial experiments.

This contract and its 10-ETH companion represent some of the earliest evidence that speculative financial mechanisms arrived on Ethereum within days of the Frontier launch, preceding any formal regulatory framework or community norms around such contracts.