Posted on 03/13/2017 11:14:44 AM PDT by amorphous
While much of the media and public attention has been understandably focused on Bitcoin in recent months, a far more dramatic move has taken place in Bitcoin's less popular peer, Ethereum. To be sure, one month ago, when we noticed the first tangible move higher in ETH since last summer's dramatic plunge following a highly public hacking scandal which involved a "forking" in the blockchain, we mused if China's furious momentum chasers were turning their attention from bitcoin to ethereum.
While the jury is still out on whether Chinese traders have shifted their attention to the less popular digital currency, this morning Ethereum surpassed all-time highs and was trading above $30. As of publication time, the blockchain-based unit had soared by over a third in just the past 24 hours according to Coinbase and CoinGecko ...
The recent surge in Ethereum began on February 27, when as we reported the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance was launched, a project focussing on Blockchain propagation and innovation for international business which includes such members as JPM, Intel and Microsoft.
Curiously, another big move took place after the rejection of the Bitcoin ETF by the SEC late on Friday, when various "altcoins" experienced a slight drop followed by a sweeping comeback, as some speculated that public attention could now shift to various Bitcoin competitors.
That said, some have expressed skepticism if the current rally can persist, most notably leading Ethereum developer Vlad Zamfir, who last week wrote that Ethereum “euphoria” could soon end due to the prospect of another hard fork. “I am not feeling any euphoria anymore. I am mostly filled with concern about how everything could go horribly wrong,” he warned.
"I say it because I want you to understand where I’m coming from when I react to feeling euphoria in the Ethereum community. I felt euphoria for about the first eight to 12 months of becoming involved in Ethereum— I am not feeling any euphoria anymore. I am mostly filled with concern about how everything could go horribly wrong, with feelings of being overwhelmed, with being unable to keep up with everything that I feel requires my attention."
Zamfir wrote in his blog post that Blockchains are not toys, they are neither get rich quick schemes nor a shiny tool for automating business processes. "They are powerful technology that have the potential to do unspeakable harm. But they can also provide the basis for solutions to serious global problems," he pointed out. He claimed that he is not rubbishing Ethereum because it is not an exciting technology or he doesn't care about all the work the community is doing. He claims he is very optimistic about the future of the platform but troubled by the no room for opposition. Zamfir explained further:
"I didn’t make that tweet because Ethereum isn’t safe or scalable, really, I did it because I find the current level of euphoria quite offensive. Maybe it isn’t my place to keep euphoria in check. Maybe it is. I don’t know. But I will probably continue to express myself by turning my feelings into radical, unnuanced tweets nonetheless."
Cited by CoinTelegraph, the consultant then said that Ethereum is not safe and he cannot guarantee there won't be a 51% attack on the network unless there is a hard fork to minimize the damage. Likewise, on smart contracts, he has the same opinion. He did, however, concede that a lot of smart people in the Ethereum community are working hard to make Ethereum safe and secure with smart contract formal verification efforts and with proof-of-stake consensus protocol research.
"I think that we will continue to make steady and impressive progress on these safety problems," Zamfir acknowledged.
He is also optimistic Ethereum will get better:"Granted that all Blockchains suck. Is Ethereum at least more safe or scalable than other Blockchains? Maybe. But that is a nuanced discussion that won’t fit in this margin."
Since his post, Ethereum has nearly doubled in value.
No, I’ve got all money in a Unobtanium mining stock.
Wish now I'd held on to a few, but I put the last up for sale above $28 last night and this morning they were all sold.
As always in trading, and I don't care if it's stocks, commodities, or whatever you're trading, you're kicking yourself coming and going.
Yeah, an invisible currency, that is fully independent of government. And government seems to tolerate it being free and unregulated and have no problem with this.
Sure, I believe that./s
Now there's a great investment! ;)
It got into dihydrogen monoxide years ago. Use it every day. Even have it delivered to the house!
My portfolio is heavy with di-lithium crystals.
Email from exchange: “A withdrawal of $X,XXX.00 USD has been initiated”.
Mine comes by pipeline, before going through the RO unit.
I am going from memory, but etherium looked like a very ambitious and interesting project. I think any focus on “etherium as a currency” is misplaced, since IIRC the primary focus of etherium was as a decentralized, distributed data, contract, and code platform.
If anyone familiar with the project can chime in: why is the focus now on etherium as a currency? Wasn’t the whole project geared towards generic storage? I remember that one of the goals was for etherium to serve as a platform for webapp code such that the code was executed by nodes of the network (and would therefore be free from tampering, and would not have a single point-of-failure). Was this wrong?
I am no crypto currency expert, but I think Bitcoin might be a good store of value, if not investment, but it is not a “currency” until the taxation issues are addressed, Specifically the capital gains issue when there are such programs out there to ‘mix’ bitcoins to cloud the purchase date so as to make capital gains calculations impossible, but again, I am no expert.
One cannot help be impressed by Bitcoins performance lately, especially considering the Winklevos twin ETF denial Friday.
Buy high and sell cheap is my motto. It takes all of the stress out of investing.
IMO it should be declared/treated as a commodity, but who can argue with the IRS?!
LOL, yeah, if only you knew where those points were! I sold a few along as the price climbed but still left a lot on the table. I've also kicked myself for not selling with the price was up, only to watch it fall.
A person just has to be happy with a profit and not get greedy, and forget about the bad trades - I guess.
There's a heck of a lot more to being a good trader than most people realize.
I hear there will be a run on dihydrogen monoxide.
The Chinese are crazy for that stuff!!
Oh, yeah. Quite a few.
This is the first time I've heard of “Ethereum.”
I know about “smart contracts,” but I had no idea there were funded start up companies actively working on the application software.
Ethereum is a cool name, but I'm not sure I want my money denominated in a currency called “Ether.”
My money already disappears into thin air every month!
There is no question that “Block Chain” technology is very exciting.
But, the security issues are still huge.
I just read the Ethereum bio on Wiki.
After Ethereum had its online crowd sourced $150 million IPO (paid in bitcoins), someone hacked their software and “kidnapped” $50 million for a month!
Not quite ready for prime time.
Of course. I do trade. I know the ecstasy and the despair of trading.
I've mined BTC, XMR, BCN, LTC, ETH, ETC, FCN, and ZEC. Currently, ETH and XMR are the most profitable. It's helps that the miners give off "free" heat in the winter and the trading supplements the mining. And except for free drinks and good looking hostesses, it beats poking quarters into one-armed bandits at the casino.
I didn't see the denial as a bad thing. Paper gold and silver has really messed up the true price of those two commodities, as the fraudulent manipulation of their price is pretty apparent.
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