𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺? 🤷 If you are a crypto investor or at least follow the news on Fintwit or Reddit, you may have realized that lately Ethereum $ETHEREUM has unseated Bitcoin $BTC as the most talked about crypto currency. Why is that? Bitcoin still has nearly triple the market cap and trades at over thirteen times the price as Ethereum, even while both are mired in a minor correction at the time of this writing. While the two remain the benchmark cryptos against which all others are measured, Bitcoin and Ethereum are actually vastly different in their utility. On the surface, Bitcoin acts as a store of value, more like a digital gold than an actual currency. Much of the value around Bitcoin is in its scarcity, with a limited supply of roughly 21 million total, of which over 18 million have already been mined. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺❓ Ethereum is actually the name of the Blockchain and Ether is the name of the currency which makes it run. It can also be looked at as the fuel for applications that work on the Ethereum network, since its intent is not to be used as a currency per se. The key behind Ethereum’s utility right now is that it works with smart contracts, which are transaction protocols that can automatically execute transactions. In essence, the Ethereum network is able to digitally authenticate and certify transactions without an intermediary party. When it started, there was an initial supply of 72 million Ether coins, after which more are constantly being created. This fact alone may depress Ethereum’s actual financial value compared to the very limited supply of Bitcoin. 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 🆚 It really depends on who you ask! Die hard fans for each crypto fill fight to the death to defend their favorite token. Cardano $ADA is mentioned as one of the Ethereum replacements, but the Cardano network still does not have smart contracts enabled meaning the current utility is quite low compared to Ethereum. Chainlink $LINK is not so much a competitor to Etheruem but more of a pick and shovel play within the Ethereum network. Polkadot (DOT) also works on the Ethereum network, but rather than smart contracts, developers are able to build individual blockchains that can then speak with each other. The technology is advancing rapidly and new tokens and use cases are being created nearly every day! 𝗜𝘀 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁? 💰 Short answer is yes! Although after the recent bull run, Ethereum seems to be cooling off a bit. There are multiple estimates from crypto experts that say Ethereum could reach as high as $10,000 per coin by the end of 2021, although crypto price forecasts are always subject to major volatility. For now, Ethereum is embedded in many instances now, including for NFTs or non-fungible tokens, financial transactions, supply chain verification by companies like Amazon (NASDAQ: $AMZN (Amazon) ), and many more. It is one of the main cryptos that are accepted now as payments on eCommerce platforms, and it is anticipated that at some point in the near future it will hold a market cap of $1 trillion USD. Investors should never expect two cryptos to behave in the same way, so a price rise to Bitcoin’s levels are not guaranteed. But Ethereum definitely has a higher utility in everyday life, and shows no signs of being replaced anytime soon.