I have shared my thoughts on this before on a separate Ethereum (ETH) post on Quora.I’ll reiterate my sentiments here:The blockchain to dominate marketshare for Turing complete supercomputer, such as ETH, will be one with the strongest network effects for developers: one that can mathematically implement formal verification to secure sensitive smart contracts while concomitantly driving strong enterprise adoption.Ultimately, the strength of the developer community will drive innovation: they will be the first-line of defense to see if the latest protocol and app layers are robustly tested against exploits and identify potential 0 day attacks before it’s too late.With the release of Casper’s long-touted PoS, I only see more money pouring in for development and speculation.On May 16th, 2017 with the price per ETH hovering around $87 I predicted that such developments may even drive the price beyond ~$150 by the end of 2017 and establish a new plateau in the $150–$200 range.I am amused yet concerned to see my call play out much faster than I anticipated.

Again, this is 100% contingent on any significant 0-day exploit, major code vulnerability, or attack on the network or major exchange/wallet (especially with the release of new code via Casper and/or Metropolis’s zk-SNARKs ).Any attack like that would cause the market to drop prices like they were hot.Let’s hope Vitalik et al centuple-test the code before release.The price can further be bolstered by any positive major developments with the EEA (Enterprise Ethereum Alliance) whose cooperating members currently include Microsoft, JPMC, Intel, UBS, Accenture, and the list is only growing.The EEA needs to demonstrate utility with DApps, which go beyond current R&D stage projects in the application layer.The quality and quantity of devs will certainly influence how soon their objectives are met to deliver configurable consensus, privacy controls, and rules based access control to assign permissions and constraints.That said, Ethereum’s future is only as bright as its developer community.

This point can’t be overemphasized.Despite controversy, it already has a proven track-record of tested technical ability to handle programmatic crises mid-flight.Although, as history indicates, unscheduled hard-forks will only divide the community even more deeply as the ETH network continues to mature past such youthful indiscretions.Since the start of the year we have seen Ethereum’s market cap increase +1,219% to date.bitcoin block genesisThat is a price movement of $8.24 to ~$94 today.msi bitcoin motherboardBarring any correction due to an attack an exchange or its protocol layer, I only see sound support at the ~$85.ethereum rig build guideAs a result, I only further unfettered optimism for it’s trajectory and would not be surprised to see at least a doubling in it’s price by early 2018.elms bitcoin video

This sounds like a phenomenal return on its own right — arguably, as far as this market is concerned — such an estimate may prove to be conservative.Only time will tell.Nota bene: Notice how the BTC:ETH ratio has steadily decreased with time.ryan taylor bitcoinNearly a year ago it hovered above a 1:35 ratio.bitcoin gtx 970Now it is within a 1:20 ratio; barring an unprecedented hard-fork by Bitcoin Unlimited Project this Fall (which would cause a dramatic downside correction).It is plausible to see a run up in the price of BTC to $10,000 by 2018, if not earlier, which would drive the BTC:ETH ratio below 1:20.Perhaps peaking it at 1:10 ratio for a new ATH.This implies ETH to be worth north of $500, at the lower end, if not more ($1,000) by 2018 before correcting.This bullish view assumes many things are working well: EEA development is flourishing, 0 mission critical cyberattacks on ETH protocol and/or exchanges, etc… Again, I must caution that this market is also well primed to overheat as later adopters rush en masse with speculative fervor.

At that stage, the seeming reward will simply overshadow any rational attempts to obviate downside risk.I think there is a good chance Ethereum will be $500 by the beginning of 2018.Even though the price of Ethereum has already appreciated significantly in 2017, there is still significant upside from current levels.Rather than focusing on the price for now, let’s look at the following charts:Ethereum Transaction Growth ChartThere were 38,730 transactions Ethereum blockchain on 1/1/2017 and there were 140,135 transactions on 5/17/2017.That is 262% growth in less than 6 months!While it’s foolish to extrapolate trends ad infinitum, it’s not hard to imagine that there could be another 200%-250% growth in transactions by the end of the year.Cryptocurrencies, like social networks, have extremely strong network effects.As the adoption of Ethereum continues to grow, its utility and value will grow exponentially.There is compelling evidence of this if we look at Bitcoin.Confirmed Transactions Per DayOn 5/16/2012 there were 14,892 transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain and 317,527 on 5/16/2017.

That is a growth rate in transactions of 2,132% over the course of 5 years.plete Bitcoin's Price Chart with Related Historical EventsThe price of bitcoin was $4.99 on 5/15/2012 and $1726.46 on 5/16/2017.During the same 5 year period, the price of bitcoin increased by 34,598%, outpacing transaction growth by a factor of 16.2.If you ignore the Mt.Gox manipulated price spike in 2013, you can repeat this exercise over any time frame and the result will be the same — price increases exponentially relative to transaction growth.In fact, the price increases at slightly less than the rate in transaction growth squared.If we take the estimate of 2-2.5x growth in transactions by the end of the year and square it, we get 4–5.25x price appreciation.Applying that to the current price $105, we get $420-$551 by beginning of 2018.Let’s call it an even $500.For more details on why I’m extremely bullish on Ethereum in the long-term, click on the link below.Ken Liu's answer to What is the most promising cryptocurrency other than BTC?