the basics of ethereum

even my grandma knows what ethereum is. it's the other crypto front runner alongside with bitcoin and it just hit its all time high of $4800+. come read why people are saying ethereum is going to change the internet

Ethereum vs. Bitcoin

Bitcoin runs on its own blockchain. This is a new technology that allows everything to be decentralized from finance to internet to music. For more details on blockchain tech, I recommend checking out the basics of bitcoin.

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum (eth) is another cryptocurrency that runs on its own blockchain. Whereas Bitcoin is usually referred to as the "next gold" or "future of finance", Ethereum takes it a step further and allows for a large ecosystem of dApps (Decentralized Apps) and DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) to be built on top of its open software platform by utilizing it's blockchain technology. For more on DAOs and dApps check out what's an alt coin?.

To put it simply, Bitcoin is a peer to peer electronic cash and is focused on being the future of finance. Ethereum focuses on Decentralized Computation in general and gives software devs the tools to build programs on its blockchain without needing extensive background knowledge in coding, cryptography, or math. For super in depth details that even I don't entirely get, check out the Ethereum Whitepaper.

This is super important/interesting because

for the longest time non-believers in crypto were like "wHaT eVeN iS bItCoIn" and said things like "tHeReS nO vAlUe To iT" without understanding why it was truly valuable. Then the people who started to gain a liking for Bitcoin began to preach and tell everyone how Bitcoin is the future and how Bitcoin is going to change the world. Well, when it comes to that, they are only half correct. Bitcoin is the future of money, yes, but the future of our internet and lives on the internet are all grounded in the fundamental ideas and principles that Bitcoin is built off of. These being decentralization, security, privacy, etc. Once you realize that, then you will understand why cryptocurrencies like Ethereum are so hot right now and why they are said to change the internet as we know it.

What exactly can it do?

The native cryptocurrency that runs off of the Ethereum blockchain is called Ether. Many other alt coins, dApps, and DAOs are being built off of the Ethereum blockchain. When it comes to making transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem you are going to need Ether in your wallet to pay for things like smart contracts and gas fees.

Smart contracts- These facilitate the exchange of money, content, property, shares, or anything of value. These programs will run exactly as they are coded to upon transaction. This means that no one can affect it or change the coding. This form of authentication on the Ethereum blockchain allows for them to be safe, secure, and private. See how NFTs are smart contracts in the basics of NFTs.

*I will be delving into the endless possibilities of smart contracts and why they are so exciting in a future post so stay up to date and click subscribe in the top right corner*

Gas Fees- These fees are what the users pay to the Ethereum miners. People "mine" eth by validating and confirming transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. This is what allows the Ethereum ecosystem to run. Miners are incentivized to confirm the highest paying transaction and this is what keeps the eco system going.

World of Warcraft

made the young Vitalik Buterin see the horrors that centralized services can bring when the game weakened his "beloved" character. He then went on to create Ethereum at age 21 in July of 2015. Buterin is currently the youngest crypto billionaire in the world. His main goal is currently to move Ethereums ecosystem to a whole new protocol called Ethereum 2.0. This is a big step for the Ethereum network and will change Ethereum's tokenomics at a fundamental level to solve a huge issue that it currently has.

One slight issue with Ethereum

is the Gas Fees. Many people use the Ethereum network to do all sorts of stuff, but the hottest thing to get into is by far NFTs. Because the network can get so full of people trying to buy a specific NFT at once it can lead to the fees jumping to crazy high numbers. With a big enough group trying to "mint" (or buy an NFT before it is available on opensea.io) the gas fees can be 2x, 3x, or even 5x the price of the actual NFT itself. With this in mind many people are starting to consider investing in other promising alt coins like Solana and Cardano. As of today Ethereum can only confirm about 13 transactions per second. This doesn't even compare to Solana's 50,000 transactions per second. Ethereum has to keep up so it doesn't fall behind it's other competitors and Ethereum 2.0 is Buterin's solution.

But ETH is still the leading alt coin

and is competing with the likes of Bitcoin in terms of volume and market cap. It is the second leading crypto currency and sits at a market cap of $568b and a volume of $19b. It is up nearly 1000% in just 1 year. As of Monday, November 8th it is at its all time high of $4,825.

If you would like to start investing in Ethereum or even Cardano and Solana, Coinbase is a great exchange to use that is safe, simple, and has a wide variety of cryptocurrencies to invest in.

Click this icon to join Coinbase and in doing so receive $10 worth of Bitcoin for FREE

Ethereum has paved the way for a whole new ecosystem of decentralized projects. If you are interested in the future of #Ethereum and #Ethereum2 then stay up to date on cryptosyte.com. To hear from Vitalik Buterin himself, check out this cool podcast of Lex Fridman interviewing Vitalik Buterin on the future of Ethereum 2.0, #decentralization and #cryptocurrency.

*this is not financial advise and i am not a financial advisor.