Ethereum, What is happening? The price, the updates & predictions

In the blockchain technology world, scaling debates are pretty much the center of everything. It is a solution that works on a micro-level, between sharding and the switch to proof-of-stake, there have been countless solutions provided, and Vitalik Buterin seems to think his hard work is about to pay off. After all the end goal of ETH is to build a giant, decentralized network of computers that are both able to record transactions and produce smart contracts.

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Ethereum

Now what is the problem?

The technological barriers become more important once you process the fact you are dealing with other people’s money. Companies like Golem, which saw the release of its token delayed 3 years, are finding there to be some difficulties integrating with Ethereum. Most of these issues stem from current scaling problems, as was evidenced when Cryptokitties (a popular game building on top of Ethereum) created massive congestion within the system. All that being said, Golem’s CEO, Julian Zawistowski is still a believes that Ethereum is “by far the most promising blockchain platform”.

Ethereum network development timeline based on the eth history and horizons by Jun Hasegawa:

  • 2017 : Speculation (ICOs)
  • 2018 : PoC / Ecosystem bui;d / Scaling solutions ( L2 #Plasma #OmiseGO/ L1 #Sharding #Casper ) / Interchain protocols
  • 2019 : Real business adoption / UIUX focus tools / More Dapps
  • 2019 to 2020 : Ethereum massively scale and used by gov. We will see huge difference between real adoptable protocol and toxic speculation project.”

The same way that WordPress has made it unnecessary for every company to learn how to code their own website on a deep level, Ethereum hopes to do this for all blockchain companies. Its ability to enable the development of DApps makes it a unique player in the space, and the fact that scaling issues are beginning to be solved (as is evidenced by ERC-20 problems being solved and projects like Golem finally being released) is a great sign for its future.

Ethereum, the Java of Blockchain

Bitcoin is displayed most prominently, along with other popular cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Tether, Ripple’s XRP, Ethereum’s Ether, and many, many more.

Ether is also built on top of blockchain, but Ethereum is essentially a middleware layer for people to build their own blockchain-based apps, but without doing it from the scratch. Without a platform like Ethereum, building a blockchain app might require building your own blockchain platform, So, much the same way Java was positioned initially as the leading platform for building Web apps, Ethereum is the same thing, but for blockchain apps. With a close proximity to the way Bitcoin works, Ethereum is often perceived as a programmable version of Bitcoin. So now, why are companies building on Ethereum? Well because they want their applications to inherit some of the key benefits of blockchain, such as decentralization and data immutability, while relying on Ethereum’s APIs to give them a head start. Companies that were built on Ethereum include KYC-Chain (an identity management service), Axiom Zen’s Cryptokitties (a blockchain-based game that raised $30 million from venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz), and WeiFund (crowdfunding). (Reported by programmableweb)

In 2018, can you actually spend ETH on anywhere/website/store?

TapJets for example, the Largest Private Jet Instant Booking Platform, has started to accept Ethereum from its customers. Users can now instantly complete their transaction using Ethereum cryptocurrency in addition to traditional credit card and bank wire payments. here is a list of other websites: QHoster.com, Snel.com, cryptopet.com, finnatravel.com, flokinet.is, torguard.net, Key4co.in

ETH, Why the price decline?

The ETH/USD pair broke the $295 and $300 resistance levels and formed a high at $302.64. Later, buyers failed to keep the price above the $300 level, resulting in a downside correction. It declined below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last leg from the $276 low to $302 high.

One of the reasons behind this general trend of ETH price going down is the unclear future of the currency network in next couple of months. Next updates are some controversial ones that may even lead to hard forks in ETH network.

The next step, What is agreed for now?

Ethereum developers have decided to delay the “Difficulty Bomb” by agreeing to include the code for such a change into Metropolis’ hard fork—Constantinople. The core developers decided on a video call, streamed live on YouTube on August 31, 2018, to accept the EIP-1234 scenario for the “Difficulty Bomb’s” impact on block rewards. EIP 1234 will reduce block rewards from 3 ETH per block to 2 ETH per block and delay the “Difficulty Bomb” for 12 months.

The next updates may be a possible hard-fork for ETH

By definition, such system-wide upgrades require every software user to upgrade to new rules and new code continues to operate as designed. Still, in a upcoming October upgrade named Constantinople, ethereum is faced with a perhaps huge challenge.

besides the Constantinople, there’s a hard deadline for the next upgrade, currently set for October. Predicted sometime in early 2019, a piece of code known as the difficulty bomb is scheduled enact, thereby making ethereum’s blocks steadily less time efficient to mine. Then the difficulty bomb will push ethereum into what is known as the “ice age,” a period wherein the difficulty is so high that transactions can no longer be processed, making the blockchain unusable. (The bomb was originally included in the code to encourage the platform to quickly adopt new technology).

There could be difficulty ahead of October. If a certain proportion of ethereum nodes chose to run different software, it could lead to a split in the network (not unlike what occurred when ethereum classic emerged following a disagreement on technical direction in 2016).

According to a Github post, the updated version of EIP 1234 will reduce block rewards from 3 ETH per block to 2 ETH per block and delay the “Difficulty Bomb” for 12 months. The developers at the meeting, also agreed to release another hard fork eight months from the Constantinople upgrade. Since the current protocol is not finished, a hard-fork might be required to complete the implementation. For companies, switching to the new network—which uses a PoS consensus—shouldn’t be a problem. Not so for miners, who might need time to adjust to a new system of earning rewards based on coin ownership.

Jun Hasegawa and ETH future

As Jun Hasegawa emphasized earlier, in next two years, throughout 2019 and 2020, Ethereum is likely to see real business adoption, more large-scale decentralized applications (dApp), massive scaling, and adoption by the governments, all based on estimating the development of scaling technologies in 2018. He also mentioned:

“2017 : Speculation (ICOs)
2018 : PoC / Ecosystem bui;d / Scaling solutions ( L2 #Plasma #OmiseGO/ L1 #Sharding #Casper ) / Interchain protocols
2019 : Real business adoption / UIUX focus tools / More Dapps
2019 to 2020 : thereum massively scale and used by gov. We will see huge difference between real adoptable protocol and toxic speculation project.”

Tags: Technology, crypto, cryptocurrency, eth, ethereum, ETH future, hard-fork for ETH, spend ETH on anywhere, Ethereum Blockchain, Vitalik Buterin, cryptocurrencies , Constantinople,  Constantinople  ethereum, ethereum difficulty bomb, ethereum ice age, ETH price decline

Mohsen Daemi
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