Ethereum (ETH)
Official webpage https://www.ethereum.org/
This platform for smart contracts was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2013. It is a platform that functions as both a currency and as an application platform that can hold data and execute decentralized code. The platform is based on Proof of Work, just like Bitcoin. They currently handle about 15 transactions per second.
Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency today, thanks in large part to the platform being used to run other projects and ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). Other tokens can be placed on top of Ethereum using, among other things, the ERC-20 standard.
The platform is used for applications and games, such as UniSwap and CryptoKitties. Today, it has also become the obvious platform for decentralized finance.
Advantages
- Largest development team of them all. They show no signs of slowing down.
- The largest and first decentralized application platform.
- Decentralized organization, which is not as common in the sphere as one might think.
- Good leadership thanks to Vitalik Buterin.
- Extremely many partnerships and companies that believe in the platform.
Disadvantages
- The platform is slow today, and it becomes crystal clear in applications and games.
- The fees for transactions are often sky high due to the network being overloaded.
- The competition is getting tougher, several new platforms have already been launched that are technically more impressive. If they do not fix their performance issues, there is a risk that someone else will catch up.
- No support for anonymous / secret transactions.
The future
EIP 1559 - Fee market
Ethereum has extremely high transaction fees under heavy load, which occurs several times a year when interest increases or a new DAPP becomes popular. Costs of $100 are not entirely uncommon for a transfer, which of course does not work in the long run. It creates a market where only the rich can afford to participate.
EIP 1559 partially solves this problem by changing how fees are paid and calculated. Instead of choosing the transaction fee, ing to the war to get on the blockchain, the base fee will be , which is the same for everyone. This fee will be burned, that is, disappear into nothingness. However, tips can still be given to Ethereum miners.
This has several major advantages: 1. It will be easier to calculate what the fee will be in advance, and the variability will be lower so that it does not change after you have done your transaction. 2. The fees will be lower because there is no price war. 3. As the fee is burned, it potentially leads to Ethereum becoming deflationary, i.e. the number of Ethereum will slowly decrease. It makes your existing ETHs more valuable.
Not everyone is happy about this proposion though, namely the miners who validate transactions. It is a market that in February 2021 gave a total value of $0.65 billion. But Ethereum will probably rather look after the users' best interest and introduce EIP 1559 in the next big update of Ethereum 1.0, called London. This will happen in July 2021.
Ethereum 2.0
15 transactions per second is no longer enough. It's not even enough for one application or one game. It is not an easy task to increase the speed of a decentralized network, but the technology has come a long way since Ethereum 1.0 saw the light of day.
ETH 2.0 is released in different phases.
- Beacon Chain: Launched in December 2020 and is the backbone of the new network. It handles transactions, smart contracts, etc. over Proof of Stake.
- Shard chains: Planned for 2021 and will offer shards, ie own separate networks that divide the network into several. This means that several transactions can be executed simultaneously and all parties in the Ethereum network no longer need to know and validate all calculations and transactions.
- The docking: When this is done, Ethereum 1.0 will merge with the new network and only then will the upgrade be complete. This is planned for 2022.
Buying
They can be purchased directly by credit card or bank transfer at CoinBase or Binance.