WarningYou are using Firefox 43, which is known to crash when using Cryptowatch.Mozilla has fixed this issue in newer versions.Download the Firefox Nightly build for a more stable experience.Google Chrome is another good alternative.Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin gave a presentation at the headquarters of San Francisco bitcoin startup Coinbase this week in which he outlined the road ahead for the open-source blockchain project.Fresh off the launch of its first production-ready version Homestead, a number of bitcoin industry startups have begun to take a closer look at Ethereum, exploring its capabilities as part of pilot projects.Coming amid the ongoing block size debate, as well Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s pointed criticisms of the bitcoin network, the event sparked speculation on social media forums in the days leading up to the event.However, while Coinbase co-founders Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam were present at the event, there were no major announcements or indications that the startup was moving to formally embrace or begin building products on top of the technology.

Comprising roughly 30 slides, Buterin's presentation gave an overview of Ethereum’s path forward, which will include two additional releases, dubbed Metropolis and Serenity, to be launched at later dates.reddit bitcoin brasilButerin discussed network statistics including the number of decentralized applications running on the platform, the price of its native token, ether, and the rising number of global meetups dedicated to Ethereum.dogecoin price in usdStill, Buterin sought to downplay expectations for the platform, indicating that, despite assertions, the toughest work for Ethereum's development team lies ahead.litecoin hash hardwareFor example, Buterin said that ensuring optional privacy on the network and proving it can scale are current points of concern.bitcoin cnbce

Elsewhere, slides touched on the platform’s three-stage planned transition from proof of work to proof of stake transaction validation, and proposed improvements to its Ethereum virtual machines which handle the blockchain's internal state.litecoin mining with cpuThe event was open to the public, and according to its Meetup page, drew roughly 40 attendees.ethereum backgroundEthereum is back in its upwards trajectory following a successful hardfork and Coinbase integration.The psychological resistance level of 0.02 has just been broken, paving a clear path towards the next resistance level of 0.025 with some suggesting it may surpass last month’s all-time high.The increase directly follows a successful hardfork where more than $200 million (as valued at the time of theft) were rescued and returned to the rightful owners.The biggest non-event in digital currencies’ history was followed by an outpouring of praise from the mainstream media with such headlines as Long Live Ethereum!

– Why Ethereum Succeeded Where Bitcoin Failed and Why Ethereum is the hottest new thing in digital currency.Fred Wilson, a Silicon Valley VC who controls billions and invested in such companies as Twitter and Zynga, stated: “I see the successful Ethereum hard fork this week as an important milestone for public blockchains.” Emin Gün Sirer, one of the few in this space who can see what others cannot, stated: “It’s a point of strength to be able to adapt to that change, to be able to respond to it, to be able to do it in an orderly fashion.Ethereum just demonstrated this.I think this is a rite of passage for ethereum.” Showing an endorsement of Ethereum’s development team and community, Coinbase added Eth, with the option for merchants to accept eth payments potentially to follow, providing a direct line of integration to the current financial system.In a public statement, Coinbase seemed to suggest they are placing their bets on ethereum to be the “open financial system for the world:” “Ethereum is pushing the digital currency ecosystem forward and we are excited to support it as part of our mission to create an open financial system for the world.” Price instantly jumped following the announcement yesterday and continues to increase today, reaching $14 on GDAX, changing direction to an upwards trajectory.

Following the DAO hack, Ethereum’s price plummeted, falling lower than 0.015, with price forming a bear market and seemingly headed towards $4, but the fast resolution made possible by a highly professional development team and a community that showed they overwhelmingly share the same principles returned trust and confidence in the network, with price changing direction as soon as the fork became fairly assured, climbing to 0.0175: Followed by an increase on the 20th when the hardfork successfully completed in bare seconds and continues to increase as a potential disaster is turned into a success story.Featured image from Shutterstock.In a sweeping, 2,500-word blog post today, Fred Ehrsam, the co-founder of one of the best funded blockchain startups, Coinbase, took aim at what he called a "stagnant" bitcoin community that he characterized as being outperformed by innovators working on the Ethereum network.Coinciding with the rebranding of the Coinbase exchange and the launch of trading for Ethereum's blockchain token, ether, the public comments are the latest sign that Coinbase leadership remains dissatisfied with what they perceive as a lack of progress among bitcoin’s developers and with the technology as a whole.

In the post, Ehrsam sought to position Ethereum as a possible competitor to bitcoin, indicating his belief that the competing protocol could "blow past bitcoin entirely"."There is nothing that bitcoin can do which Ethereum can’t.While Ethereum is less battle tested, it is moving faster, has better leadership and has more developer mindshare.First mover advantage is challenging to overcome, but at current pace, it’s conceivable."The statements follow months of tensions between the once fast-growing startup and the bitcoin community, which found CEO Brian Armstrong often calling vocally for bitcoin developers to increase a limit on the amount of data that could be included in blocks on the bitcoin blockchain.Armstrong sought to position this inaction as a limiter of growth on the network as a whole, a position that showcased the divisions between bitcoin developers and its business community that saw this as a roadblock to new customer onboarding.Still, Ehrsam sought to position Ethereum as moving the development of "digital currency" and its technology forward, emphasizing that Coinbase intends to support both protocols, and that it sees them growing together to become “low-level protocols” in what could be a new Internet for value exchange.

"Competition and new ideas create better outcomes for everyone.Even if Ethereum goes up in flames our collective knowledge in digital currency will have leveled up significantly," Ehrsam said.The comments drew some notable commentary that characterized Coinbase’s statements as perhaps being the result of issues it faces as a venture-backed startup, with a former business development executive at the company tweeting: “Important to remember: bitcoin has infinite patience and no burn rate.Take individual perspectives with a big grain of salt.” Though Ehrsam lauded the success of the bitcoin network, his blog post was sharply critical of the developer community and business ecosystem that has thus far developed around it.In particular, he questioned why only "infrastructure apps" have been built on the bitcoin blockchain, drawing attention to the idea that seven years into its development, the digital currency had produced no "killer apps".Ehrsam sought to position this as the result of bitcoin’s limited scripting language, though he acknowledged that this was intended by its design.

"My theory has been that the scripting language in bitcoin — the piece of every bitcoin transaction that lets you run a little software program along with it — is too restrictive," he wrote.Likewise, he framed Ethereum as more friendly to those who want to develop blockchain-based applications, calling the level of app development in the community "already faster than bitcoin’s".Coinbase developers, he said, have been able to use the platform to build simple apps in just a few days, a data point he contrasted to the difficulty of performing a similar feat on the bitcoin network."I cannot overemphasize enough how important this combination of full programming functionality and ease of use is," he continued.Ehrsam further framed Ethereum as empowering a new generation of developers, in part, due to what he termed a "healthy" core development team that he sees as encouraging collaboration.In particular, praise was given to Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin, who Ehrsam lauded as seeming comfortable as a community and technical leader.