Review on Ethereum by Stephen Toluwani
The Ethereum Project Review
The Ethereum project was started by Vitalik Buterin not as a Crypto asset for facilitating P2P transaction but as an open source project from which developers from all around the world can write their codes in it's smart contract to develop their Decentralized apps Dapps and Tokens with different use case. The native coin of this project is the Ethereum ETH and currently ranks 2nd in the coinmarket ranking according to it's total market capitalization. The price of ETH has been experiencing steady growths from the beginning of the year in which it crashed to almost $100 and then peaked to over $400 during the Defi bubble and currently hovering around $340 The cryptocoin is one of the most widely held asset as there are millions of wallets supporting this Coin which means it's a versatile asset. The creation on the Ethereum Blockchain of Decentralized apps Dapps and Smart Contract is a technical process and is best left for highly skilled Developers as mistakes or vulnerabilities in a smart contract can lead to it being hacked or tampered and funds lost or maneuvered just like that of the Eminence Finance Project. The project supports a Testnet for the developers to run their code without taking risks of losing money before launching their projects on the Ethereum Mainnet. Tokens that can be created on the Ethereum Blockchain are referred to as ERC-20 tokens and are the most created tokens in the Crypto world as it can be accessed on any ERC-20 supporting Ethereum wallet. The Ethereum coin is a mineable asset which supports only the Proof of Work mining algorithm bit with hopes for a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism coming at the years' end in the launch of the Ethereum 2
Updated 3 years ago
Rating has not been changed
The much awaited Ethereum 2.0 finally came following months of delay. It was born of the EIP-1559 Proposal to help mitigate the high transaction fees that comes along with the congested Ethereum Network. The Ethereum 2.0 boast of using the Novel Proof of Stake to approve blocks which is meant to make the Blockchain quite faster but with a little tint on security (though not much as secured as the Proof of Work). With Ethereum 2.0 we see Staking as a part of the Network, burning of Ethereum coins, thereby making it a deflationary store of value
To the most important part of my review;
What I see about the update:
Despite the update going live since August 5th and promises of a faster block time and lesser fee, many of this are yet to come to fruition, especially the fee aspect. Interacting with a Smart contract still charges around $10 per transaction. Even Ethereum coin transactions cost about $3 at the least. This is some improvement for many but looking at the way EVM compatible Blockchains (Zombie clones of the Ethereum Network) has scaled through in fees most especially and speed, Ethereum fees can still be regarded as expensive. It's still said to be work in progress, but am looking forward to lower fee up to the $1 mark. After all, the dream of Ethereum (whitepaper) was to cut third-parties that made transactions expensive.
Ethereum and the race to outflip Bitcoin in value.
Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 Million coins, Ethereum has over 100 Million coin with about 2 ETH minted yearly, with the introduction of ETH 2.0, Ethereum becomes both Inflationary and Deflationary, but deflates at a higher rate at the moment. This momentarily means possiblity of shortening the supply early would create a demand floor that should push price up
Considering the popularity that is associated with Ethereum being the most popular smart contract platform, interest from even big names in the industry makes Ethereum a valuable store of value, plus it's utility of creating computer programs that are immutable for use in our every day lives.
In my opinion, Ethereum is well suited for more value increments but to flip out Bitcoin, that seems nearly impossible.
The future of Ethereum in the race of Smart Contract Platforms
The long standing reputation of Ethereum is one thing to look at whenever speaking of its future. Am quite sure many will choose Ethereum over other Smart contract platforms due popularity and decentralised nature of the network as Ethereum is said to be the second most decentralised Cryptocurrency.
I still Value Ethereum, during the times of low fee latency, I made a lot of transactions on the chain and still have some holdings and ERC-20 compatible tokens.
Pending till when fees gets well sorted out as congestion is almost out of the picture, I personally will be back on Ethereum.
But for now, it's better than it used to be and I hope more proposals keeps getting tabled to better the world's most popular Smart contract platform.
Pros
- The Ethereum Blockchain runs an open source code which allows developers to write and develop their own code on its Network
- The Ethereum coin is a mineable asset using the Proof of Work mining model with an incoming support for Proof of Stake coming in it's 2.0 launch
- The coin is listed on many exchanges
Cons
- Gas fees for making transactions on this Blockchain is high
- There is volatility in price of the coin
- The creation of smart contracts and Decentralized apps is quite technical
- The project supports a Testnet for developers to test their products before launching into the Ethereum Mainnet
