Bitcoin is still the single most popular cryptocurrency out there but ether, which is a cryptocurrency token of the Ethereum platform, is steadily gaining ground.
Said platform went live in the summer of 2015, and two years afterwards it managed to capture some serious media attention, all while appreciating in value like it’s nobody’s business. Also the cryptocurrency has attracted attention (and money) from major corporations like Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase.
Here’s what makes it special — 6 things everyone should know about Ethereum…
1. Ethereum is the platform, ether is the money
Those of you who are new to Ethereum, here are the basics:
- Ethereum is the blockchain-based distributed computing platform,
- ether is the money or as they call it a “cryptocurrency token.” It is listed under the diminutive ETH and traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.
So if you want to “get into Ethereum,” you are on the market to buy and sell ether. To do so, you can use bitcoins as well as U.S. dollars on major cryptocurrency exchanges.
2. Ethereum is already the second most popular cryptocurrency
Bitcoin is still king, but Ethereum is catching up. I doubt it will reach parity with bitcoin in the foreseeable future, but that’s not necessarily the point. The point is that it’s been growing like crazy ever since it was introduced at the end of July 2015, and has particularly gained traction in early 2017. For what it matters, it has been growing at a faster rate than bitcoin.
Today, ether is deemed the second most popular cryptocurrency, with around 33 percent of cryptocurrency exchange networks and vendors supporting it. In comparison, bitcoin is accepted by 98 percent of these companies.
Also, the number of Ethereum transactions has more than doubled since 2016.
3. Ethereum goes beyond money
Compared to the Bitcoin blockchain, the one “running” Ethereum is much more powerful and goes beyond money transactions. Some experts even suggest that at one point in the future we could see Ethereum-powered decentralized services for taxi rides and apartment rentals, which could compete with their centralized counterparts — Uber and Airbnb. This sort of setup could disrupt the sharing economy to give more power to drivers and apartment owners. In other words, Ethereum could be used to directly connect users with providers without a company serving as a middleman.
Some of the big companies that are exploring the use of Ethereum for enterprise software include Microsoft, IBM, JPMorgan Chase and Deloitte.
4. Big companies support Ethereum
Speaking of big organizations, they have organized to form the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) in March 2017. The EEA is a nonprofit organization gathering blockchain start-ups, research groups, and Fortune 500 companies; its members include the likes of ConsenSys, Cornell University’s research group, Toyota Research Institute, Samsung SDS, Microsoft, Intel, J.P. Morgan, Merck KGaA, DTCC, Deloitte, Accenture, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, ING, and National Bank of Canada.
The purpose of the EEA is to coordinate the engineering of an open-source standard and private “permissioned” version of the Ethereum blockchain that can address the common interests of enterprises in banking, management, consulting, automotive, pharmaceutical, health, technology, mobile, entertainment, and other industries, while working with developers from the Ethereum ecosystem.
5. Ethereum is NOT an overnight success
It may sound like one, but Ethereum is not an overnight success. It was proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a cryptocurrency researcher and programmer, and the system went live almost two years after that, on 30 July 2015. At that time, 11.9 million coins were “premined” for the crowdsale, and as of mid-2017 — these coins account for approximately 13 percent of the total circulating supply.
Since early 2016, ether has been the second-largest market cap of any cryptocurrency, managing to surpass alternative asset protocols like litecoin and ripple.
6. Bitcoin exchanges sell ether
Finally, if you want to hop on the Ethereum bandwagon, you should know that you can buy ether through reputable platforms, namely those which have been selling bitcoins for years.
Today, all major bitcoin exchanges will gladly take bitcoins for ether, with some of them also allowing users to buy it with good ol’ U.S. dollars and/or any other major currency. So if you want to “get into Ethereum,” check out your favorite bitcoin platform; chances are, it will also let you buy ether.