With its ability to codify, decentralize, secure and trade just about anything, Ethereum​ (ETH) has created a lot of buzz since its 2015 launch.It was quick to move up the ladder in terms of market capitalization, leaving behind a trail of 700-odd other cryptocurrencies.Its recent rally has been unprecedented, an increase of 900% in 2017, growing from about $8 at the beginning of the year to beyond $80 in early May.Here’s a close look at Ethereum and an attempt to understand the factors that are fueling its spectacular rise.Ethereum, launched on July 30, 2015, is a decentralized software platform that enables Smart Contracts and Distributed Applications (ĐApps) to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control or interference from a third party.Ether, a cryptographic token, acts like a vehicle for moving around on the Ethereum​ platform.It is a form of payment made by clients for operating on the Ethereum platform and thus acts like an incentive for developers looking to develop and run applications within.

One of the natural consequences of its popularity has been its constant comparison to Bitcoin.The two differ in their basic purposes.Unlike Bitcoin, the primary purpose of Ethereum is not to establish itself as a payment alternative.It goal is to facilitate and monetize the working of Ethereum to enable developers to build and run ĐApps.However, on the trading platform, Ether rises as a staunch competitor to all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.(Related reading, see: Bitcoin Vs Ethereum: Driven by Different Purposes) Over the eight years of its existence, Bitcoin has taught a few lessons and helped generate the confidence among people to plunge into the world of Virtual Currencies.Bitcoin, fueled by a stream of positive news, is trading at a life-time high.This has generated positive sentiment about cryptocurrencies in general, and Ethereum is benefitting from the same, just like the rest.Further, Ethereum on its own has been generating excitement with big names such as JPMorgan Chase Co.

(JPM), Intel (INTC), Bank of New York Mellon Corp.(BK), and Microsoft (/markets/stocks/msft/MSFT) endorsing it by joining the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance that “connects Fortune 500 enterprises, startups, academics, and technology vendors with Ethereum subject matter experts.” Microsoft Corp.drop in litecoin pricehas been offering Ethereum Blockchain as a Service (EBaaS) on Microsoft Azure since November 2015, in collaboration with developer https://consensys.net/ConsenSys, “so Enterprise clients and developers can have a single click cloud based blockchain developer environment.” Given that Ethereum is not just a platform but also a programming language running on a blockchain, helping developers to build, publish distributed applications and run programs, it is being explored the most for enterprise use.okpay bitcoin address

(Related reading, see: The First-Ever Ethereum IRA is a Game-Changer) Chris Kline, COO of BitcoinIRA (the first IRS-approved Bitcoin-based IRA) told Investopedia, “Smart contracts are not only disruptive, they are logical.Whether it's government, global corporations or small business, these will inevitably be a part of everyday life.bitcoin otc priceAs that realization grows, so too will Ethereum.” In early April, Blockchain​ Capital, a venture capital firm investing in cryptocurrency ecosystem, successfully raised $10 million in a record six hours for its first digital liquid venture fund, called Blockchain Capital III Digital Liquid Venture Fund, LP.bitcoin mining vga cardThe Singapore-registered fund raised capital via a digital token build on the Ethereum platform.active bitcoin pools

(Related reading, see: SingularDTV Creating Entertainment On The Ethereum Blockchain) Not just corporates and private institutions, but even global organizations such as the United Nations are looking to harness the Ethereum blockchain to deliver humanitarian assistance, such as the World Food Programme.ethereum search trend reported earlier this month.bitcoin money laundering lawWith great enthusiasm around Ethereum, its price has risen, too fast too soon, and thus the current rally may not be sustainable for long.bitcoin usb stickThis is natural and thus investors must tread carefully at this stage.ethereum ether miningHowever, any correction in the near to medium term shouldn't undermine its potential.

The rising awareness and confidence among the masses about cryptocurrencies coupled with the immense possibilities offered by Ethereum will eventually power its journey going forward.The future belongs to decentralization.Ethereum Classic is a project spontaneously forged through free market consensus.Although Ethereum and Classic share the same roots, each project is treading on their own separate paths.The first week of trading ETC was very profitable yet the market has been on a slow decline since then.The ETC market is unique because all ETH holders were given ETC after the hard fork and many of them had a vested interest in crashing the price.Classic is seen as a competitor to Ethereum, so there’s been a lot of revenge dumping in the markets.Even though ETC has its fair share of haters, these are still natural participants in the market.Suppressing the price will only help Classic supporters to accumulate at lower levels.Eventually when all the dumpers are priced out of the markets, the supply will change hands and buyers will be in control.

When buyers take control, bull markets are born.After making some really nice profit during the first week of trading, I started reaccumulating ETC at around 0.0019 BTC and cost averaging down with larger orders.The accumulation strategy is a longer term play that requires strong hands and seeing the forest from the trees.Even hardcore ETH supporter may want to consider having some ETC as a hedge.Smart money doesn’t let emotions or politics get in the way of their trading decisions.Based on the low price and solid fundamentals, I believe that ETC may have a nice bull trend in 2017.Here are some of the reasons why: Developing in Ethereum Classic is hard, as you’re picking up other people’s code, which is hard enough as it is, but it’s made much more difficult by the complexity of the systems and the number of different languages involved with all the clients.As a result the mammoth responsibilities of CTO have been reluctantly filled by Igor Artamonov.He has pretty much taken on the key efforts around leading technical analysis and change in general, but with primary focus on the Geth client.

He has developed and seen through ETC’s first hard fork for gas price change and the delay of the diff bomb.After Geth he has moved his attention to Parity, where he is also making changes for the delay of the bomb.It has to be noted that Ethcore has been supportive by accepting key pull requests from Igor.But as ETC is now working on bringing in more Go developers to support with the Geth client he is starting to focus on parity, but he is still overseeing the testing and recruitment of potential new devs.The ETC project is also looking for rust devs to support Igor in making further changes in Parity.Igor is overseeing a lot of analysis, coordination and support activities related to core dev work.Everything from understanding client usage across the network to prioritise change to supporting issues from users and testing work with other core devs.There are also other highly skilled and dedicated core devs who are doing key work around driving the success of ETC. These include Elaine Ou, who has been instrumental in analysis and support for the first hard fork.

She is working on the cpp client to ensure it is fixed/updated for ETC.In addition there are other key dev players that include Daniel Kaminski de Souza who is updating the Mist client.Eric Somdahl and Cody Burns on analysis and infrastructure.The team is slowly expanding with people who are actually contributing, either through dev, analysis or support.These efforts are being seen more and more clearly, and in most cases these people are doing this on their own time with little or no financial contributions.There is also another dev team coming on board to rewrite an ETC client in Scala.Recently I spoke with Charles Hoskinson over the phone to talk about his take on Ethereum Classic’s development roadmap.He’s the founder of IOHK, a company that specializes in blockchain research and development.His company has committed to hire 3-5 full-time developers to fix many of the bugs and security problems that Ethereum has been experiencing.Rather than writing hasty code and making impulsive decisions, Charles wants to make sure that any changes undergo an extensive peer review process and community discussion.

There are currently two teams of developers competing to accomplish a test and IOHK will hire the best team.Ethereum Classic development is heading in its own direction and will offer new innovations in the blockchain space.Barry Silbert indicated that he’s building an ETC investment trust that will trade on the OTC Markets.The Bitcoin investment trust was launched in 2015, when BTC was in an accumulation zone before the bull trend.It currently manages over $100M worth of BTC.An investment trust will give institutional investors exposure to ETC.It seems that Barry has been accumulating a sizeable position in ETC and we may see an increase in buying pressure before the trust is launched.This type of news event for 2017 could trigger a lot of FOMO in the markets and lead to a bull trend.When asked about his involvement with Ethereum Classic, Barry stated the following in the slack: The ETC community is in the final stages of firming up a new monetary policy for the project.Unlike Ethereum, Classic wants to hard cap the supply to around 210-222M coins and reduce the inflation rate with block reward halvings.

This approach has a successful track record with bitcoin and will give confidence to ETC investors.Ethereum Classic froze the mining difficulty bomb and intends on remaining as proof-of-work mining.Either it will stay pure POW or a hybrid POW/POS system.Keeping Classic as POW will ensure that miners will always have a future with ETC. Evidence shows that POW coins tend to be more secure and have a better long term price performance.When Ethereum migrates over to a pure POS system, it’s possible that ETC will soak up most of its hashing power.POS doesn’t require any additional resources beyond buying coins and is a system that tends to favour whales.Proof-of-stake will give the Ethereum Foundation more centralized control over the network because they still have a sizeable amount of ETH.The Chinese mining community has taken a liking to ETC. People like Chandler Guo have been very vocal about backing ETC and Chinese exchange BTCC plans on listing it over ETH.Ethereum Classic was born spontaneously out of chaos, which happens to make it a more decentralized and community driven project.