The booming price of bitcoin over the last year has created a buzz around cryptocurrency that goes far beyond technology enthusiasts and free market libertarians.
It has also helped draw attention to a number of other virtual currencies looming in its shadow, most notably ethereum.
Ethereum was created in 2013 by a 19-year-old Russian programmer and launched in 2015. For the first two years its price remained below $10. Then, in 2017, it exploded. In the space of 12 months, one unit of the cyptocurrency – called an ether – surged in value to be worth around $1,400 at its peak in January 2018.
While its price has since fallen back down to around $700, many still see it as the most promising of all cryptocurrency platforms, and therefore the one that holds the most potential for future price gains. Some even believe it could one day surpass bitcoin.
“Ethereum has the possibility to overtake the market capitalisation, and thus value, of bitcoin,” Hubert Olszewski, director of business development at Blockchain Board of Derivatives, tells The Independent. “This is because from the get-go it was a more versatile tool.”
When bitcoin became the world’s first decentralised digital currency upon its release in 2009, the world was reeling from the worst financial crisis in decades. So-called crypto-anarchists and others who were disillusioned by the recession hailed bitcoin for its ability to facilitate payments without the need for a bank. Essentially, they thought, it held the potential to revolutionise the global financial system.
Since bitcoin’s inception, more than 1,500 other cryptocurrencies have appeared in its wake. Each one has attempted to offer something that bitcoin can’t, with the argument being that bitcoin’s core technology contains a number a fundamental flaws that are being exposed as its network grows.
independent.co.uk
