The crypto economy, as we know, is transparent, easily accessible by public and cannot be manipulated easily. The developers are working constantly to add the new dimensions where digital currency can be put to use. The two significant names in the cryptocurrency- Bitcoin and Ethereum are alluring the masses to the benefits they offer due to which the governments across the globe are struggling to subjugate the decentralized currency by adding some regulations and moderators.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum was set in motion by a Russian progammer – Vitalik Buterin in 2013 and has a smart contract functionality. It has captured the crypto market to such an extent that now it is second only to Bitcoin.
Though it is also decentralized and works on blockchain, Its mining is based on proof of work but it wants to implement proof of stake consensus technique keeping sustainable development in mind. Ethereum’s present consumption of energy with proof-of-work is too high and unsustainable. To solve this problem without compromising on security, is the new area of focus for Ethereum.
The upcoming network upgrade to proof-of-stake will change this scenario. ETH 2.0, the beacon chain of Ethereum, is already operating on proof of stake since December 2020 and the company is ready to amalgamate both in the near future. This merger is now expected in the near future. After merger, Ethereum will leave proof-of-work and fully adopts proof-of-stake.
Ethereum’s added feature in the form of smart contracts and a variety of Decentralized applications (Dapps) like Uniswap, Polymarket, Pooltogether, etc make it unique. It will also help it to scale up in future.
A new block is mined every 15 seconds approximately on Ethereum block chain and the miners have to pay for ether computational gas in return. The currency used by the platform is termed as Ether (ETH). The whole system is protected via cryptography. Ethereum is not only for digital money but also for digital tokens. Technologists are working relentlessly to bring innovation in the field of tokens which might change the way we trade forever.
Tokens Available on Ethereum:
The most notable tokens available on Ethereum are:
- NFTs or Non Fungible Tokens give the ownership of a unique digital artwork to a person
- Stablecoins deal with the tokens which are not very volatile in nature.
- Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a collection of financial products available on Ethereum which allows transactions without including any intermediate agency.
- Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) is a community managed by the token holders.
Ethereum and its apps are transparent, open source and allow users to fork code and re-use functionality built by others. In other words, on the Ethereum blockchain any user can build a bank or bring out his own tokens and currencies. These can further be used across multiple applications.
Today, Ether can be used in innumerable ways – for making and receiving payments, exchange with other tokens and also earn interest based income on Ethereum based tokens. With Metaverse knocking on our lives, the use case of blockchain like Ethereum will multiply many more times in future.
