About Ethereum

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain network providing global smart-contract functionality and decentralized application (dApp) integration. Ethereum is known for its native token Ether (ETH) and is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

The open-source distributed computing platform that powers the ETH network permits active participants to establish digital ledgers publicly ensuring:

As the need for blockchain grows, Ethereum remains a top choice for developers to leverage their DeFi technologies, relying on the blockchains multi-functional and multi-layered ease of access.

Some of the major use-cases of Ethereum so far have been:

These are just a handful of the applications conceived for Ethereum.

Ethereum set the standard for smart contracts, with its network currently servicing more than 1.45 million smart contracts on its blockchain. Smart contracts provide a decentralized protocol to facilitate and verify negotiations that cannot be tampered with or manipulated.

These programmable and self-executing contracts offer transparency since participants are free to view and audit the transaction logs. In addition, the permissionless capabilities of these smart contracts mean that anyone can deploy one.

Apart from smart contracts, Ethereum serves a major role in other areas of decentralized finance (DeFi). Through the use of the networks decentralized apps (dApps), users essentially become their own banks with elevated speed, transparency, and security.

This means there is no need to open accounts or provide personal information. You can get a loan, lend crypto, buy derivatives, and trade using Ethereums decentralized services. Some examples of its DeFi use cases include:

The NFT market gained immense traction in 2021 as tokenized digital items were made available using Ethereum. The networks blockchain provided the necessary platform to run NFT marketplaces whereby users can mint and trade their creations.

In addition, most NFT markets require ETH to conduct trades on the platform. Although other blockchains now provide NFT functionality, it was Ethereum that started it.

ETH remains the leader for NFT integration due to the blockchains highly-secure network and its connection to an entire growing market that gives NFT users maximum exposure.

Ethereum was founded by Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, and Joe Lubin, founder of blockchain software company ConsenSys. Along with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, and Anthony Di Lorio, an idea to revolutionize blockchain technology beyond a means of virtual payments gave rise to Ethereums legendary inception.

Vitalik, who published Ethereums white paper and introduced it to the public in 2014, spent much of his early days studying mathematics, economics, and programming. His passion for code later expressed itself during his travels when he visited other developers who shared the same enthusiasm.

After being awarded a $100,000 grant from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, he devoted his remaining time and energy to creating Ethereum. The official Ethereum blockchain network went live in 2015 along with its native token Ether (ETH) which followed an $18 million crowd sale.

The goal behind the creation of a new blockchain was to provide a decentralized platform to encourage developers and users to build their own peer-to-peer apps. Using Ethereums network, smart contracts and dApps began to revolutionize the financial sector.

This new way of doing business omitted the need for financial intermediaries and eventually led to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Ethereums underlying operating structure. In 2016, due to a system manipulation resulting in $50 million of Ether being stolen, the network experienced a hard forkchanges to the protocolwhich resulted in two separate blockchains, with Ethereum Classic serving as the original.

Since then, seven more hard forks would ensue. Today, much of Ethereums praise comes from the NFT market since it is the main blockchain network that enables users to mint and trade their NFTs.

Ethereums susceptibility to price swings shouldnt come as a surprise considering the extreme volatility of the crypto market. However, a close study of the coins overall price trend certainly proves the long-range potential of the second largest cryptocurrency.

Ethereum made its debut in the market with a token launch price of $0.31 and reached an astounding all-time high (ATH) above $4,880 in November 2021.

During the course of Ethereums price trajectory, the market experienced a couple of bull cycles as well as some catastrophic crashes. When 2017s bull cycle soared ETHs price to $826, Ethereums first major spike was marked.

After a continuous stride of peaks and valleys, ETH gained even more traction in the following year in January, when it reached another ATH of $1,396 before tumbling down and closing the year off at only $141.

However, it wasnt until 2021 when the NFT market exploded, that Ethereum was to receive mass adoption. Ethereums smart contract capabilities fully enabled the minting and trading of NFTs, and because NFT users needed ETH to trade on the platforms, this alone allowed the token price to skyrocket to a whopping $4,0000.

The Ethereum blockchain currently runs on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus protocola protocol in which computer nodes expend copious amounts of computational power to come to a consensus on the network. The high energy consumption has led to slower and more costly transactions. In an effort to keep the network sustainable and environmentally friendly, a consensus merge is now underway to allow the blockchain to run on a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol instead.

The merge is a solid representation of Ethereums urgency to provide a more robust architectural infrastructure for a next-generation scaling system. This upgrade, referred to as Ethereum 2.0, aims to resolve the issues surrounding high gas fees and slow transaction speeds that crypto mining operations are implicating.

With the blockchain operating on a proof-of-stake network, proposed validators will handle the validation process followed by an attestation of the other contributing nodes. This ensures consensus without the need to run computational functions as is currently done on a PoW. Moreover, the new consensus model is predicted to reduce energy consumption by 99.95%.

In addition to supporting a more sustainable network, PoS incentivizes the ethereum staking validators for their work by rewarding them with cryptocurrency. In the same fashion, validators are penalized for malicious behavior, giving them more reason to run the system efficiently.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has expressed legitimate approval for the proof-of-stake mechanism, stating that an attack on a PoS is far less harmful and easier to recover from than an attack on a PoW.

Ethereums core developers involved in making the transition a success know that a merge of this magnitude is far too complex, and will require many steps until completion. To increase the number of validators and ensure transactions are processed securely, the Ethereum mainnet needs to merge with the Beacon Chainthe formal consensus layer of PoS which currently holds more than 375,000 active validators.

The Beacon Chain is a separate network that runs parallel to Ethereum and will be responsible for coordinating block activity and selecting validators. Furthermore, the merge will be accompanied by the 2023 introduction of shard chains that should provide extra storage layers for cost efficiency and speed. As per when this all will take place, the merge is currently projected to take effect around September 15, 2022.

Read more:

Ethereum Price: ETH/USD & Live Charts