Ethereum, a decentralized network inspired by bitcoin that can support financial transactions as well as other types of apps, is ascendent.Its cryptocurrency, ether, was trading at over $400 each earlier this week, leading to speculation that ether would soon be worth more than bitcoin, an event people started calling “the flippening.”Ethereum is, at its most basic, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency that includes a scripting element.Think of it kind of like this: bitcoin keeps track of transaction data, ethereum keeps track of that and computer programs.“Ethereum” refers to the company, founded by programmer Vitalik Buterin, as well as the blockchain itself.An “ether” is a unit of ethereum blockchain-based currency, which acts as an incentive for people to participate in the network.But unlike bitcoin, which can actually be used as a currency to buy and sell goods and services, it’s almost impossible to find things you can buy with ether.The decentralized applications that it’s meant to support like Ethereum Name Service, which offers wallet-specific domains, or portfolio service Prism are all still in their infancy.

The market price of ether seems to be fueled by hype, speculation, and fear of missing out on another bitcoin-like boom, which made many early adopters unexpectedly rich.“We missed our first chance, but won't miss our second chance,” said one Reddit user who invested $3,200 on a computer rig to mine, or generate, ethers.The Reddit user, who identified themselves only as Curtis out of fear that relatives would come knocking for handouts, said they and their spouse had discussed investing in ethereum back in 2015, but promptly forgot about it.They heard about it again last week, and went on to purchase both the rig and $300 dollars worth of ether.Most ether investors declined to give their full names for privacy reasons as well as a desire to not broadcast their wealth (hacking is still common in the cryptocurrency world).“My main reason to pour some money in would be to not regret it later on,” Reddit user TehBananaBread wrote when asked why now.“Maybe ethereum and other currencies like that is the ticket to something bigger, better.”Another recent investor, Rich, invested in ether because “it just made sense” to them.

Between bitcoin and ether, Rich has invested a total of $1,000 dollars.Specifically to ether, Rich had read that “companies will be needing to use it for smart contracts” (a common enough term for an “if this, then that” computer program using the ethereum blockchain) in the future.“Thats [sic] going to be big!”Reddit user Pewpewwwwwwwwww said they had considered and passed on bitcoin, but the price run-up in bitcoin caused them to look at ether.They invested $1,000 in the currency and are considering converting a $2,800 gaming machine into a mining rig.“Sounds cool tbh,” they told The Outline.“And im [sic] a loser, and like getting and spending money on stupid shit.”If all this sounds super speculative, that’s because it is.Of those who responded to The Outline’s questions, none mentioned exactly what they intended to do with ethereum beyond make money.“As you mentioned, a huge part of the spike in ether [...] has to do with investment and speculation,” Alex Sunnarborg, a research analyst at CoinDesk, said in a written statement provided to The Outline.

“As the price increases, more media covers it, more people speak about it positively, etc., it creates upwards acceleration.”According to Sunnarborg, the fear of missing out is real.ethereal gem tradeBut the exact reason why any one person might invest likely traces back to a mixture of reasons such as the continued growth of cryptocurrencies, the popularity and price of bitcoin combined with its political and literal stagnation, and successful crowdfunding efforts — often called “initial coin offerings” or ICOs — using ether.Nobody wants to sleep on the next bitcoin.ethereum coin redditEarlier this year, Kraken in partnership with The Economist, launched a contest that posed an important question to MBA programs across the country.bitcoin obsession

UPDATE: Winners of the Kraken contest have been announced: You have $1M to invest across bitcoin and ether.You cannot touch your investment for the next 5 years.bitcoin blingHow much of that $1M do you invest in each?ist bitcoin illegalKraken’s essential question is, “which is the digital asset of the future?” In response, 13 teams have participated by providing a detailed paper and a short video to express their findings.bitcoin mining dyingThrough in depth research, detailed analysis, and educated speculation, each team has presented their case for Kraken and the crypto community to assess and vote on.bitcoin mining anfängerSubmissions will be judged on the following main points: Kraken has incentivized the contest with cash prizes valued at $21,000 (USD).bitcoin 51 ataque

The 1st place winner will receive $10,000, 2nd place will be awarded $5,000, 3rd place will retain $3,000, and the People’s Choice to receive $3,000 as well.bitcoin api perlEach team was asked to quantify their results as a percentage, granting them free range in how much or how little they would potentially invest the one million into each currency.Below is a chart of the initial results of each participant.Determining the findings took shape as grading systems to which the results were scaled, tallied, and quantified.The teams also employed financial tools such as Monte Carlo simulations, to make accurate projections of growth for both currencies over the next five years.No one team held bias over their decision making but rather employed mathematical strategies that broke down fundamental attributes such as Upon reviewing the submissions, some distinct patterns began to emerge.All teams, with the exception of Ivey Business School at Western University, (no investment recommendation) invested some value into Ether.

With a low of nine percent investment from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, to a high 100 percent investment from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, all expressed some if not significant investment value in ETH.By scoring BTC and ETH through these attributes, teams were able to objectively manage data into their case studies, along with other real world factors such as commercial application, and projected growth affected by various trends in the crypto world.Although Bitcoin is currently the number one cryptocurrency today, most teams expressed Ether’s potential to replace bitcoin as the network grows.With bitcoin having certain non-tech advantages over ETH, mainly it’s time on the market and the public’s familiarity, teams adamantly expressed their belief to place some, if not most of the speculative one million dollars into BTC, over the next five years.The reasoning behinds this stands that BTC currently has a higher monetary value over ETH and is expected to increase as much as 600 percent by 2020.

The decentralization of bitcoin also played a factor in determining the growth of the currency, making it a safer bet to invest in, according to certain teams.Ether did reign champion at Worcester Polytechnic Institute with 100 percent investment, with both Porto and Rutgers Business Schools tying in 2nd place with an 80 percent investment.Teams that assigned 50 percent or more of the one million into ETH, expressed Ethereum’s value as a whole rather than as mere currency.The consensus dictates that smart contracts and commercial monetization of the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) make it a valuable commodity to invest in, an advantage over bitcoin.BTC was viewed as the more profitable currency, however it’s limitations beyond that was shared by many of the schools.“Ethereum’s nature makes it difficult for adaptors to understand the technology and for regulators to pass [legislation]”, according to BYU Marriot School of Management.This sentiment was echoed in other papers and played a significant role in the investment strategy.

For some teams, ETH’s short time in existence played a bigger role than others, while some saw the potential for Ethereum to become a major player not only as a currency, but also in part because of its unique ecosystem.Charts and diagrams broke down costs and trading trends over several years displaying exponential growth of ETH as much as 550 percent by 2020.Regardless of the final results of each team, the potential of ETH to become profitable was shared by most.We see this sentiment echoed in the paper from Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Nathaniel Popper and many others have referred to Bitcoin as the new, “Digital gold.” Ethereum on the other hand primarily seeks to provide a way to record and store transactions, and this difference is the primary reason why we believe Ethereum is the better investment over the next five years.With Bitcoin reigning in as overall champion at 55 percent of the total collective investment, the majority is in favor of investing more funds in BTC.