While Bitcoin, launched a decade ago, was the world’s first cryptocurrency, the Ethereum system is now expanding the boundaries of blockchain technology by supporting smart contracts between its users. These contracts allow two parties to set predetermined conditions and define automatically triggered outcomes if and when those conditions are met. Smart contracts are now being applied to domains other than the financial realm, and companies in a wide range of sectors are beginning to take advantage of the network, which is likely to support Ethereum prices in the long run.
Since the beginning of 2018, Ethereum has risen from $755.76 to a mid-January peak of $1,412.12, before dropping precipitously to $390.22 at the present time. If prices keep falling, they will head towards the important support level of $300.
However, this recent slump in the price of Ether is widely seen as a buying opportunity for traders who believe in its future. Ethereum is more than just a cryptocurrency system – it is a complete platform offering a variety of services beyond simple financial transactions. This is why many major companies, including Microsoft, BBVA, UBS, Intel, BP, and JP Morgan, have decided to use the Ethereum blockchain for many of their daily activities.
All kinds of events can negatively influence the prices of cryptocurrencies. Political moves to regulate this industry bans on ICOs, and negative media coverage about scams and hacks have all contributed to panic selling of altcoins in recent months. But the pace of innovation in the world of digital currencies continues to confound the naysayers.
Recently, Chinese company Bitmain announced that it is working on an Ethereum ASIC miner that could be a game-changer in terms of how the Ethereum ledger is worked on and would also impact the decentralized dimension of the system. Miners employing ASICs are far more efficient than those using GPUs, because ASICs are designed solely to perform one specific task, changing the nature of market competition across the Ethereum network and initiating an ‘arms race’ to create more powerful computers that can mine even faster.
Many cryptocurrencies trading platforms offer their clients opportunities to participate in the ongoing monetary revolution by trading Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin and many other altcoins. This kind of trading can be risky due to very high volatility, but money management tools like those provided by the broker Trade360’s trading platforms can help any trader to safely invest in Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other leading coins.
