Crypto moves fast, and windows flash by. Throughout 2021, a narrative became popular, and for good reason: its story was violent, compelling, and based on true events. The tale in question was that Ethereum was about to become the victim of a murder, and the only unclear feature was the identity of the killer.
A line-up of suspects assembled, but an unusual aspect of this thriller was that rather than the plausible culprits protesting their innocence, those in the spotlight were making bold, gangster claims: that it was they and they alone who had the capacity to finish Ethereum, and that they would dispatch it without mercy.
These were the Ethereum killers. Alternative layer-1 blockchains that operated as smart-contract
Smart Contract
A smart contract is a piece of software that automatically executes a pre-determined set of actions when a certain set of criteria or met. One of the key tenets of smart contracts is their ability to perform credible transactions without third parties and are self-executing, with their conditions written into the lines of code that form themAdditionally, these transactions are both trackable and irreversible. For example, a smart contract could be used to give royalty payouts to a musical artist each time a song is played on the radio. The contract detects when the song is played, and then automatically sends a payout to the artist or artist. All parties involved in a smart contract must agree to the terms of the contract before it can be executed. They must also consent to any changes made to the contract. Transactions made through a smart contract are traceable and irreversible.Smart contracts were first proposed in 1994 by American computer Scientist Nick Szabo. Szabo created a digital currency called “Bit Gold” in 1998, over 10 years before the creation of Bitcoin.Benefits of Smart ContractsMany proponents of smart contracts point to many kinds of contractual clauses that could be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or simply both. Conversely, smart contracts can lead to a situation where bugs or including security holes are visible to all yet may not be quickly fixed.The fundamental goal of smart contracts is to provide additional layers of security that are superior to traditional contract law. In doing so, this reduces other transaction costs associated with contracting. Smart contracts appear most prevalently in the cryptocurrency space, having implemented countless instances of smart contracts.
A smart contract is a piece of software that automatically executes a pre-determined set of actions when a certain set of criteria or met. One of the key tenets of smart contracts is their ability to perform credible transactions without third parties and are self-executing, with their conditions written into the lines of code that form themAdditionally, these transactions are both trackable and irreversible. For example, a smart contract could be used to give royalty payouts to a musical artist each time a song is played on the radio. The contract detects when the song is played, and then automatically sends a payout to the artist or artist. All parties involved in a smart contract must agree to the terms of the contract before it can be executed. They must also consent to any changes made to the contract. Transactions made through a smart contract are traceable and irreversible.Smart contracts were first proposed in 1994 by American computer Scientist Nick Szabo. Szabo created a digital currency called “Bit Gold” in 1998, over 10 years before the creation of Bitcoin.Benefits of Smart ContractsMany proponents of smart contracts point to many kinds of contractual clauses that could be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or simply both. Conversely, smart contracts can lead to a situation where bugs or including security holes are visible to all yet may not be quickly fixed.The fundamental goal of smart contracts is to provide additional layers of security that are superior to traditional contract law. In doing so, this reduces other transaction costs associated with contracting. Smart contracts appear most prevalently in the cryptocurrency space, having implemented countless instances of smart contracts.
Read this Term platforms, and could replace Ethereum as the world’s decentralized computer, powering web3 and its applications in the near future.
Take your pick from Avalanche, Terra, Fantom, Solana, Cardano, BSC and more. All are different in some ways and similar in many others, and all make the same fundamental claims. They can do everything that Ethereum can, but faster, cheaper, better, cleaner, smoother, more shinily and while sipping silently on a gin martini.
And, maybe they can. Take them for a spin and you’ll see: they work. But, importantly for traders, killing Ethereum was a killer story, the genre of the moment, and could guarantee some gains. If you weren’t sure which one to flip, then just flip them all because they’re all pretty good. So far, so profitable.
So indistinguishable. So, what happened? Shouldn’t Ethereum be dead by now, having had that pack of assassins on its tail, crowing about how they were thirsty for blood and coming for the crown, and wouldn’t even charge for gas?
And yet, last time I checked, Ethereum remains not deceased. Vital signs all good. Still not transitioned to proof-of-stake, but–as always–working on it, and doing good numbers when it comes to wallets, developers, and total value locked, not to mention less directly tangible facets, such as status and trust.
And, this is all along with a value that none of its competitors, with the exception, in part, of Cardano, can lay claim to: it has survived, and survived very near the top, for a significant amount of time, and the longer it is around, the more likely it will stay around.
The sense now is that perhaps the window of opportunity has passed, and the story is changing. If Ethereum was going to be usurped then, while its toppling might not have fully unfolded yet, there would at least by now have been a first act, and signs that the crux was coming.
That, though, hasn’t happened, as Ethereum continues to be built on and utilized, is the go-to choice for smart contract work, and remains the only crypto besides bitcoin
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the world’s first digital currency that was created in 2009 by a mysterious entity named Satoshi Nakamoto. As a digital currency or cryptocurrency, Bitcoin operates without a central bank or single administrator. Instead, Bitcoin can be sent via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking, devoid of intermediaries.Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any governments or banks, and Bitcoin is not considered to be legal tender, although they do have status as an acknowledged transfer of value in some jurisdictions. Rather than composing a physical currency, Bitcoins are pieces of code that can be sent and received across a kind of distributed ledger network called a blockchain. Transactions on the Bitcoin network are confirmed by a network of computers (or nodes) that solve a series of complex equations. This process is called mining. In exchange for mining, the computers receive rewards in the form of new Bitcoins. Mining grows increasingly difficult over time, and the rewards get smaller and smaller. There is a total of 21 million Bitcoins. As of May 2020, there are 18.3 million Bitcoins in circulation. This number changes approximately every 10 minutes when new blocks are mined. Presently, each new block adds 12.5 bitcoins into circulation.Since its inception, Bitcoin has remained the most popular and largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap in the world. Bitcoin’s popularity has contributed significantly to the release of thousands of other cryptocurrencies, called “altcoins.” While the crypto market was originally hegemonic, today’s landscape features countless altcoins.Bitcoin ControversyBitcoin has been extremely controversial since its original launch. Given its mercurial nature, Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions and money laundering.As its impossible to trace, these attributes make Bitcoin the ideal vehicle for illicit behavior. Moreover, critics point to its high electricity consumption for mining, rampant price volatility, and thefts from exchanges. Bitcoin has been seen as a speculative bubble given its lack of oversight. The crypto has weathered multiple collapses and survived over a decade so far. Unlike its launch back in 2009, Bitcoin today is viewed far differently and is much more accepted by merchants and other entities.
Bitcoin is the world’s first digital currency that was created in 2009 by a mysterious entity named Satoshi Nakamoto. As a digital currency or cryptocurrency, Bitcoin operates without a central bank or single administrator. Instead, Bitcoin can be sent via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking, devoid of intermediaries.Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any governments or banks, and Bitcoin is not considered to be legal tender, although they do have status as an acknowledged transfer of value in some jurisdictions. Rather than composing a physical currency, Bitcoins are pieces of code that can be sent and received across a kind of distributed ledger network called a blockchain. Transactions on the Bitcoin network are confirmed by a network of computers (or nodes) that solve a series of complex equations. This process is called mining. In exchange for mining, the computers receive rewards in the form of new Bitcoins. Mining grows increasingly difficult over time, and the rewards get smaller and smaller. There is a total of 21 million Bitcoins. As of May 2020, there are 18.3 million Bitcoins in circulation. This number changes approximately every 10 minutes when new blocks are mined. Presently, each new block adds 12.5 bitcoins into circulation.Since its inception, Bitcoin has remained the most popular and largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap in the world. Bitcoin’s popularity has contributed significantly to the release of thousands of other cryptocurrencies, called “altcoins.” While the crypto market was originally hegemonic, today’s landscape features countless altcoins.Bitcoin ControversyBitcoin has been extremely controversial since its original launch. Given its mercurial nature, Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions and money laundering.As its impossible to trace, these attributes make Bitcoin the ideal vehicle for illicit behavior. Moreover, critics point to its high electricity consumption for mining, rampant price volatility, and thefts from exchanges. Bitcoin has been seen as a speculative bubble given its lack of oversight. The crypto has weathered multiple collapses and survived over a decade so far. Unlike its launch back in 2009, Bitcoin today is viewed far differently and is much more accepted by merchants and other entities.
Read this Term that people who are not into crypto might have heard of or considered buying.
There are still new layer-1 alternatives picking up attention, such as NEAR Protocol, but at this stage, are their distinguishing characteristics really going to propel them to perform any better (or worse, or noticeably differently), than the other layer-1 alternatives we already know about?
This is not to say that Ethereum’s competitors won’t, in the medium term, go up again in price. Solana, Avalanche et al might recover and surpass previous all-time highs. But, only if Ethereum does, and probably at exactly the same time.
When it comes down to it, how many alternative layer 1s do we need, and is it worth the time investment of learning about how they all work and their complex ecosystems when Ethereum is as much in control as it ever has been?
One argument for figuring them out is that there are lucrative opportunities to be found in some alternative DeFi environments, and in some cases around NFTs too. In that case, perhaps it’s worth going ahead and reaping the rewards. But, these opportunities, though interesting, don’t imply that there are any significant threats to Ethereum’s long-term prospects.
The Ethereum killer storyline may not have run its course just yet, but it can’t carry on forever, and there will surely be other plotlines that offer more variety, and start to attract those looking for original, high value approaches.
A key play may be in the field of NFTs, as tokens come to be used, a la Moonbirds, to raise investment and drive hype around ventures that look something like web3 startups. Also, in the NFT corner, there are likely to be big-budget corporate projects coming into the space and grabbing attention.
Such developments might take place on alternative layer-1s, but the odds are that it’s Ethereum that will carry the majority of NFT traffic and that fresh narratives will not be focused on alternatives, nor on Ethereum itself, but rather, will revolve around the projects being launched on Ethereum, at which point, Ethereum’s position looks locked in.
Perhaps there’s to be an unexpected twist and a chapter no one saw coming, but as we hurtle through 2022 it feels as though the opportunity for a kill shot. If it was ever more than just fiction, has already been left behind.
Crypto moves fast, and windows flash by. Throughout 2021, a narrative became popular, and for good reason: its story was violent, compelling, and based on true events. The tale in question was that Ethereum was about to become the victim of a murder, and the only unclear feature was the identity of the killer.
A line-up of suspects assembled, but an unusual aspect of this thriller was that rather than the plausible culprits protesting their innocence, those in the spotlight were making bold, gangster claims: that it was they and they alone who had the capacity to finish Ethereum, and that they would dispatch it without mercy.
These were the Ethereum killers. Alternative layer-1 blockchains that operated as smart-contract
Smart Contract
A smart contract is a piece of software that automatically executes a pre-determined set of actions when a certain set of criteria or met. One of the key tenets of smart contracts is their ability to perform credible transactions without third parties and are self-executing, with their conditions written into the lines of code that form themAdditionally, these transactions are both trackable and irreversible. For example, a smart contract could be used to give royalty payouts to a musical artist each time a song is played on the radio. The contract detects when the song is played, and then automatically sends a payout to the artist or artist. All parties involved in a smart contract must agree to the terms of the contract before it can be executed. They must also consent to any changes made to the contract. Transactions made through a smart contract are traceable and irreversible.Smart contracts were first proposed in 1994 by American computer Scientist Nick Szabo. Szabo created a digital currency called “Bit Gold” in 1998, over 10 years before the creation of Bitcoin.Benefits of Smart ContractsMany proponents of smart contracts point to many kinds of contractual clauses that could be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or simply both. Conversely, smart contracts can lead to a situation where bugs or including security holes are visible to all yet may not be quickly fixed.The fundamental goal of smart contracts is to provide additional layers of security that are superior to traditional contract law. In doing so, this reduces other transaction costs associated with contracting. Smart contracts appear most prevalently in the cryptocurrency space, having implemented countless instances of smart contracts.
A smart contract is a piece of software that automatically executes a pre-determined set of actions when a certain set of criteria or met. One of the key tenets of smart contracts is their ability to perform credible transactions without third parties and are self-executing, with their conditions written into the lines of code that form themAdditionally, these transactions are both trackable and irreversible. For example, a smart contract could be used to give royalty payouts to a musical artist each time a song is played on the radio. The contract detects when the song is played, and then automatically sends a payout to the artist or artist. All parties involved in a smart contract must agree to the terms of the contract before it can be executed. They must also consent to any changes made to the contract. Transactions made through a smart contract are traceable and irreversible.Smart contracts were first proposed in 1994 by American computer Scientist Nick Szabo. Szabo created a digital currency called “Bit Gold” in 1998, over 10 years before the creation of Bitcoin.Benefits of Smart ContractsMany proponents of smart contracts point to many kinds of contractual clauses that could be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or simply both. Conversely, smart contracts can lead to a situation where bugs or including security holes are visible to all yet may not be quickly fixed.The fundamental goal of smart contracts is to provide additional layers of security that are superior to traditional contract law. In doing so, this reduces other transaction costs associated with contracting. Smart contracts appear most prevalently in the cryptocurrency space, having implemented countless instances of smart contracts.
Read this Term platforms, and could replace Ethereum as the world’s decentralized computer, powering web3 and its applications in the near future.
Take your pick from Avalanche, Terra, Fantom, Solana, Cardano, BSC and more. All are different in some ways and similar in many others, and all make the same fundamental claims. They can do everything that Ethereum can, but faster, cheaper, better, cleaner, smoother, more shinily and while sipping silently on a gin martini.
And, maybe they can. Take them for a spin and you’ll see: they work. But, importantly for traders, killing Ethereum was a killer story, the genre of the moment, and could guarantee some gains. If you weren’t sure which one to flip, then just flip them all because they’re all pretty good. So far, so profitable.
So indistinguishable. So, what happened? Shouldn’t Ethereum be dead by now, having had that pack of assassins on its tail, crowing about how they were thirsty for blood and coming for the crown, and wouldn’t even charge for gas?
And yet, last time I checked, Ethereum remains not deceased. Vital signs all good. Still not transitioned to proof-of-stake, but–as always–working on it, and doing good numbers when it comes to wallets, developers, and total value locked, not to mention less directly tangible facets, such as status and trust.
And, this is all along with a value that none of its competitors, with the exception, in part, of Cardano, can lay claim to: it has survived, and survived very near the top, for a significant amount of time, and the longer it is around, the more likely it will stay around.
The sense now is that perhaps the window of opportunity has passed, and the story is changing. If Ethereum was going to be usurped then, while its toppling might not have fully unfolded yet, there would at least by now have been a first act, and signs that the crux was coming.
That, though, hasn’t happened, as Ethereum continues to be built on and utilized, is the go-to choice for smart contract work, and remains the only crypto besides bitcoin
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the world’s first digital currency that was created in 2009 by a mysterious entity named Satoshi Nakamoto. As a digital currency or cryptocurrency, Bitcoin operates without a central bank or single administrator. Instead, Bitcoin can be sent via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking, devoid of intermediaries.Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any governments or banks, and Bitcoin is not considered to be legal tender, although they do have status as an acknowledged transfer of value in some jurisdictions. Rather than composing a physical currency, Bitcoins are pieces of code that can be sent and received across a kind of distributed ledger network called a blockchain. Transactions on the Bitcoin network are confirmed by a network of computers (or nodes) that solve a series of complex equations. This process is called mining. In exchange for mining, the computers receive rewards in the form of new Bitcoins. Mining grows increasingly difficult over time, and the rewards get smaller and smaller. There is a total of 21 million Bitcoins. As of May 2020, there are 18.3 million Bitcoins in circulation. This number changes approximately every 10 minutes when new blocks are mined. Presently, each new block adds 12.5 bitcoins into circulation.Since its inception, Bitcoin has remained the most popular and largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap in the world. Bitcoin’s popularity has contributed significantly to the release of thousands of other cryptocurrencies, called “altcoins.” While the crypto market was originally hegemonic, today’s landscape features countless altcoins.Bitcoin ControversyBitcoin has been extremely controversial since its original launch. Given its mercurial nature, Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions and money laundering.As its impossible to trace, these attributes make Bitcoin the ideal vehicle for illicit behavior. Moreover, critics point to its high electricity consumption for mining, rampant price volatility, and thefts from exchanges. Bitcoin has been seen as a speculative bubble given its lack of oversight. The crypto has weathered multiple collapses and survived over a decade so far. Unlike its launch back in 2009, Bitcoin today is viewed far differently and is much more accepted by merchants and other entities.
Bitcoin is the world’s first digital currency that was created in 2009 by a mysterious entity named Satoshi Nakamoto. As a digital currency or cryptocurrency, Bitcoin operates without a central bank or single administrator. Instead, Bitcoin can be sent via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking, devoid of intermediaries.Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any governments or banks, and Bitcoin is not considered to be legal tender, although they do have status as an acknowledged transfer of value in some jurisdictions. Rather than composing a physical currency, Bitcoins are pieces of code that can be sent and received across a kind of distributed ledger network called a blockchain. Transactions on the Bitcoin network are confirmed by a network of computers (or nodes) that solve a series of complex equations. This process is called mining. In exchange for mining, the computers receive rewards in the form of new Bitcoins. Mining grows increasingly difficult over time, and the rewards get smaller and smaller. There is a total of 21 million Bitcoins. As of May 2020, there are 18.3 million Bitcoins in circulation. This number changes approximately every 10 minutes when new blocks are mined. Presently, each new block adds 12.5 bitcoins into circulation.Since its inception, Bitcoin has remained the most popular and largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap in the world. Bitcoin’s popularity has contributed significantly to the release of thousands of other cryptocurrencies, called “altcoins.” While the crypto market was originally hegemonic, today’s landscape features countless altcoins.Bitcoin ControversyBitcoin has been extremely controversial since its original launch. Given its mercurial nature, Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions and money laundering.As its impossible to trace, these attributes make Bitcoin the ideal vehicle for illicit behavior. Moreover, critics point to its high electricity consumption for mining, rampant price volatility, and thefts from exchanges. Bitcoin has been seen as a speculative bubble given its lack of oversight. The crypto has weathered multiple collapses and survived over a decade so far. Unlike its launch back in 2009, Bitcoin today is viewed far differently and is much more accepted by merchants and other entities.
Read this Term that people who are not into crypto might have heard of or considered buying.
There are still new layer-1 alternatives picking up attention, such as NEAR Protocol, but at this stage, are their distinguishing characteristics really going to propel them to perform any better (or worse, or noticeably differently), than the other layer-1 alternatives we already know about?
This is not to say that Ethereum’s competitors won’t, in the medium term, go up again in price. Solana, Avalanche et al might recover and surpass previous all-time highs. But, only if Ethereum does, and probably at exactly the same time.
When it comes down to it, how many alternative layer 1s do we need, and is it worth the time investment of learning about how they all work and their complex ecosystems when Ethereum is as much in control as it ever has been?
One argument for figuring them out is that there are lucrative opportunities to be found in some alternative DeFi environments, and in some cases around NFTs too. In that case, perhaps it’s worth going ahead and reaping the rewards. But, these opportunities, though interesting, don’t imply that there are any significant threats to Ethereum’s long-term prospects.
The Ethereum killer storyline may not have run its course just yet, but it can’t carry on forever, and there will surely be other plotlines that offer more variety, and start to attract those looking for original, high value approaches.
A key play may be in the field of NFTs, as tokens come to be used, a la Moonbirds, to raise investment and drive hype around ventures that look something like web3 startups. Also, in the NFT corner, there are likely to be big-budget corporate projects coming into the space and grabbing attention.
Such developments might take place on alternative layer-1s, but the odds are that it’s Ethereum that will carry the majority of NFT traffic and that fresh narratives will not be focused on alternatives, nor on Ethereum itself, but rather, will revolve around the projects being launched on Ethereum, at which point, Ethereum’s position looks locked in.
Perhaps there’s to be an unexpected twist and a chapter no one saw coming, but as we hurtle through 2022 it feels as though the opportunity for a kill shot. If it was ever more than just fiction, has already been left behind.
Source: https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/ethereum-killers-missed-their-shot/