Ethereum is one such cryptocurrency and blockchain network that perhaps might not even need any introduction. One of the pioneers in blockchain tech—Ethereum, has seen massive growth and serves a huge number of projects as their underlying network.
Blockchain Technology is seen as a breakthrough in the traditional technology space. However, the brand image of Ethereum is that it is seen as a breakthrough in blockchain tech itself. It took a lot of efforts of developers behind the network and faced a lot of difficulties that made Ethereum what it is today!
First Thing First, Who Created Ethereum?
Looking at the vast size of the Ethereum network, it’s not possible for someone to create it single handedly. However, the idea can have an enormous size and so it did. The idea of creating an extraordinary blockchain was not as it is today initially, it was just to create yet another blockchain, as revolutionary as Bitcoin.
This notion first hit the mind of a Russian-Canadian programmer and writer—Vitalik Buterin. Buterin was working towards co-founding Bitcoin Magazine and also writing articles for it. Along with this, he was also engaged in the Bitcoin community since 2011.
How Vitalik Buterin Created Ethereum?
With the intention to explore more, Buterin traveled and met with different bitcoin developers. After doing his research, he was sure that a far better and superior blockchain can be made after emphasizing existing bitcoin blockchain.
By 2013, Vitalik Buterin prepared the plan or in crypto space, that was termed as White Paper. And he shared it with his friends and hence it got distributed among more people. At least thirty people responded to Vitalik and they discussed the plan. The initial idea limited to only about yet another cryptocurrency but it changed soon and the developers came to know the potential of blockchain.
In January 2014, the Ethereum project was announced and it consisted of Vitalik Buterin, Anthony Di Lorio, Charles Hoskinson, Mihai Alise, Joe Lubin and Gavin Wood in its core team. They found out that it is possible to make file storage and registration concepts decentralized just like transactions.
Ethereum network possesses lots of features and rolled out them eventually after its launch. One of the most talked about features of Etheruem was to bring Smart Contracts. Native cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) also got popular and started becoming seen as another investment asset. So much so that ETH today has the second biggest market capitalization across the entire crypto market.
Is Ethereum a Good Investment?
Ethereum soon started to be seen as an investment given its utilities as a cryptocurrency as well as currency to use across the platform. The smart contract blockchain network has tons of projects running on it. These projects majorly use ETH for transaction purposes across the network.
From today’s perspective, Ethereum is also the most compatible and widely used cryptocurrency to buy NFTs. Most decentralized finance protocols and decentralized applications run and operate on Ethereum. For instance, reports are that out of overall 226 defi protocols, 203 are on Ethereum network itself.
How Ethereum is Different From Bitcoin?
Unlike bitcoin (BTC), that was formed considering the potential way to mitigate the risk like the financial crisis of 2008. Ethereum, which was built upon the similar fundamentals as Bitcoin, took the potential of blockchain further. This made it possible to use the blockchain as a distributed public ledger that could do more than just making payments and transactions.
With time, Bitcoin (BTC) was considered as a store of value while Ethereum (ETH) established itself as a spot full of utilities. General investors looked towards bitcoin (BTC) as their crypto investment given its popularity, but those who believe in blockchain technology and think that it is going to have more practical use, invest in Ethereum (ETH).
From a general perspective, both bitcoin and ethereum are mere cryptocurrencies. But the major difference lies in their functions and fundamentals that have only increased more with time. Bitcoin has turned into a digital gold while Etheruem is treated more like digital energy.
What is the Potential of Ethereum?
Ethereuem has proven its worth with time given its strong fundamentals and long-term vision. The utility factor of Ethereum is defined and very much dependent on its smart contracts. By its definition, it’s a set of rules written in the form of code on blockchain, that ensures an automatic execution after fulfilling some already disposed guidelines or set of terms.
Smart contracts have the potential to turn the tables and act as a gateway between the crypto industry and traditional industries. Smart contract comes with the most flagship features like transparency, trustworthiness and instant speed. Companies can leverage these advantages and turn their operation into faster and cost effective.
What Could be the Future of Ethereum?
Undoubtedly, the Etheruem network brought many significant features and advantages along with it, but it faces many problems in its operations. Many other blockchain serve better features, minimizing the issues that act as pain points for Ethereum users. The blockchain users face issues due to high transaction fees, low speed and lack of scalability.
Ethereum today is humongous in its size and that it requires lots of efforts to shift from its old slow and expensive form to new better, faster and cheaper blockchain network. This would be possible after Etheruem’ transition from its current proof-of-work mechanism to proof-of-stakes. This upgrade on Ethereum network is yet to come which is anticipated to launch soon as the date has been announced.
Price Prediction of Ethereum
By and large, it’s hard or sometimes almost impossible to predict the price of any cryptocurrency. This is due to the fact that the crypto market is one of the most sensitive entities. Experts and crypto analysts also have different predictions while having similar thoughts that it is hard to predict. Given the projection of Ethereum network’s upcoming journey, the prices can see extreme highs or extreme lows.
Even with the difficulty in predicting the price of Ethereum, experts believe the price could once again reach its high again. Bloomberg analysts predicted that ETH price could trade between $4,000 to $4,500 this year. While several other news outlets were more bullish on ETH as they assumed the prices could reach till $6,500 to $7,500 approx, by the end of 2022. The bullish perception for the price of Ethereum came as a result of expectations from its Merge update. However, the higher cap of several analysts even goes up to ETH trading at $12,000 in upcoming months of 2022.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/07/22/who-is-the-ethereum-founder-where-ethereum-could-go-in-2022/