What is Ether?
Summary
Ether (ETH or Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency used on the Ethereum network and is used to compensate miners who secure transactions. A planned upgrade to the Ethereum protocol in 2019-2021 would replace mining with a less computationally expensive Proof of Stake mechanism which will be secured by validators, who are also expected to receive a proportional compensation in Ether. Ether also has many current use cases, such as a store of value (e.g. in lending collateral), a medium of exchange (e.g. in trade and payments), and a unit of account (e.g. in digital marketplaces).
Ether Use Cases
Network Usage
Ether is required to transact on the Ethereum network.
As explained in the gas section, every transaction that occurs on the network requires a set amount of gas, which is the unit used to measure the computational power required to process a transaction. To process a transaction and include it in a block, miners are expected to be compensated for this task. This is accomplished by setting a gas price with every transaction, which is the cost of 1 unit of gas, denominated in Gwei (1 ETH = 1,000,000,000 Gwei).
For example, when you simply send ETH from one account to another, this cost 21,000 gas. If you were to set a gas price of 1 Gwei, this transaction would cost 0.000021 ETH.
Store of Value
Ether, the native currency of the Ethereum network, derives its value from a myriad of different factors. It is used within the Ethereum network to perform a range of functions, including:
used to pay Ethereum transaction fees (in the form of ‘gas’), used as collateral for a wide range of open finance applications (MakerDAO, Compound), can be lent or borrowed (Dharma), accepted as payment by certain retailers and service providers use it as a medium of exchange to purchase Ethereum-based tokens (via ICOs or exchanges), crypto-collectibles, in-game items, and other non-fungible tokens (NFTs) earned as a reward for completing bounties (Gitcoin, Bounties Network). Furthermore, in Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity), users will be able to become a validator and help secure the network by providing computational resources and locking up 32 Ether per validator. Due to this, it is expected that Proof of Stake will lock a substantial amount of the circulating supply of Ether. There are also discussions around introducing a ‘fee-burn’ model where a percentage of Ether used to pay transaction fees would be ‘burned’ and thus reduce the circulating supply of Ether.
In addition to utility value, Ether also has speculative value. This is value that is derived from speculative activities (such as trading and investing) which currently accounts for most of the value behind all crypto-assets. As observed in 2017, crypto-assets can attract substantial speculative interest, with some assets increasing in value by 1000x over just a few months. This speculative interest often brings fresh capital into the ecosystem that can be reinvested into various verticals, but it can be damaging to the short-term market sentiment of all crypto-assets.
Can’t tokens on Ethereum be used instead of Ether?
Theoretically, yes. Practically, no. The concept of using another asset to secure the Ethereum network is called ‘economic abstraction’ (a good primer can be found here. This would involve miners / validators accepting tokens other than Ether in exchange for adding valid transactions to new blocks.
It is highly unlikely that the Ethereum protocol will ever implement economic abstraction as it could potentially reduce the security of the blockchain by compromising the value of Ether.
How does valuable Ether help to secure the network?
In Proof of Work systems, miners compete with each other to find a block and thus be rewarded for their work (in the form of the native crypto-asset of the protocol). As the price of the asset increases, it naturally brings with it more miners, which then increases the network difficulty. As the network difficulty increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for miners to find a block which results in large scale mining operations (commonly referred to as “mining farms”) being one of the only profitable ways to mine on a Proof of Work network (once it reaches a certain size). Miners can also join ‘mining pools’ in order to increase their chances of finding a block and thus increase their rewards.
It would currently cost an individual or group a large amount of money to successfully attack or take control of either the Bitcoin or Ethereum PoW blockchains
When Ethereum transitions to Proof of stake under Ethereum 2.0, it is expected that users will be able to stake 32 Ether per validator and receive rewards for their work in the form of additional Ether (at a dynamic issuance rate , discussed later in this essay).
Under Proof of Stake, the cost of attacking Ethereum will be tied to the cost of Ether. Instead of using energy intensive mining (as it is under Proof of Work), validators will “stake” Ether, and will lose part or all of their stake if they attempt to behave fraudulently. The more validators with staked Ether securing the network, the more Ether an attacker would need to purchase in order to carry out an attack. Such an attack would likely rapidly increase the price of Ether and thus make it prohibitively more expensive for the attacker.
Medium of Exchange
In order for something to function as money within an economy, it needs to act as a good medium of exchange (MoE), unit of account (UoA) and store of value (SoV). Ether is used as a medium of exchange within the Ethereum economy for a wide range of apps, with dApp providers accepting it in exchange for fungible / non-fungible tokens, or other services. It is also used as a unit of account by various parties (including companies that have raised Ether via ICOs). Finally, Ether has historically been used as a store of value, with investors and speculators purchasing Ether to hold for investment purposes, given its relative scarcity, predictable supply growth, and inherent utility.
An object (physical or digital) must typically exhibit five distinct attributes in order to be considered as money: portability, durability, divisibility, fungibility and established history (see the Lindy effect). Ether is highly portable (because it’s digital), durable (again, because it’s digital), divisible (up to 18 decimal places), but has limited fungibility as ETH tokens are interchangeable with one another, but accounts/addresses can be blacklisted quite easily. Privacy protocols such as zk-SNARKs will eventually improve this property for Ethereum.
Ethereum has been in operation since 2015 and continues to build a strong established history. The Ethereum network (and Ether) have functioned as expected for 99.99% of its life. The other 0.01% includes surviving The DAO, multiple large hacks of smart contracts, multiple protocol-level exploits, the Shanghai DoS attacks, constant negative remarks from the wider crypto community and multiple bear markets (including a recent 94% drop in price).
On top of this, Ether has additional properties such as being censorship-resistant, permission-less, pseudonymous and interoperable with other crypto-networks.
The supply scheme of crypto-assets is hotly debated among various parties (especially those in the Bitcoin community) and there are currently two main approaches: a capped supply (like Bitcoin) or a low, predictable and hard to change issuance rate (like what is planned for Ethereum 2.0).
In Ethereum 2.0 (with Sharding and Proof of Stake implemented), while a low inflation rate will always guarantee the validators are rewarded for securing the network, it suffers from the fact that it may dilute the value of Ether for those that are not validators. Though, this is offset by Ether being taken out of the circulating supply through staking, various open finance applications, fee burning, and people simply losing access to their Ether.
The three main properties of Blockchain Technology which have helped it gain widespread acclaim are as follows:bitcoin бесплатно что bitcoin bitcoin weekly coins bitcoin generator bitcoin
cryptocurrency charts
is bitcoin monero windows pixel bitcoin bitcoin capital calculator cryptocurrency bitcoin tracker doge bitcoin exchange ethereum amd bitcoin golden bitcoin bitcoin cny bitcoin trading
bitcoin чат greenaddress bitcoin bitcoin расчет p2pool ethereum ethereum crane bitcoin calc jaxx bitcoin
bitcoin qiwi переводчик bitcoin bitcoin nachrichten gek monero bitcoin explorer ethereum contract bitcoin брокеры ethereum core bitcoin дешевеет
flash bitcoin bitcoin tools clicker bitcoin bitcoin coinwarz bitcoin parser stealer bitcoin bitcoin links wifi tether bitcoin core bitcoin уязвимости ethereum transactions pokerstars bitcoin habrahabr ethereum
flappy bitcoin bitcoin tube monero стоимость bitcoin bcn зарегистрироваться bitcoin water bitcoin bitcoin создатель wild bitcoin скачать tether weekend bitcoin обменник tether tether приложения pixel bitcoin
bitcoin datadir config bitcoin bitcoin форумы reindex bitcoin майнинга bitcoin ethereum news ethereum википедия clicker bitcoin tracker bitcoin bitcoin foto ethereum web3 vector bitcoin bitcoin foto куплю ethereum добыча bitcoin bitcoin step перевести bitcoin bitcoin приложения
ethereum рост To make the contacts you need, you should aim to become more involved in the blockchain community. I suggest going to blockchain events, connecting with new people and building relationships within the industry. This will help you to find the right people to join your project!робот bitcoin Indeed, sort of. Clients can hold different bitcoin locations, and they aren't connected to names, addresses, or other specifically recognizing data. In any case…ethereum rub bitcoin spinner вики bitcoin monero address алгоритмы bitcoin investment bitcoin ethereum упал
pow ethereum bitcoin ферма raiden ethereum bitcoin instant 1. Savings wallets. Suppose that Alice wants to keep her funds safe, but is worried that she will lose or someone will hack her private key. She puts ether into a contract with Bob, a bank, as follows:bitcoin шахты course bitcoin monero форум bitcoin баланс bcc bitcoin
пул monero ethereum получить вывод ethereum bitcoin escrow bitcoin nvidia майнинг tether bitcoin монета будущее ethereum roll bitcoin хешрейт ethereum bitcoin alliance
777 bitcoin ethereum supernova auto bitcoin bitcoin magazine bitcoin nasdaq bitcoin co monero fee
In 2014, several light-hearted songs celebrating bitcoin such as the 'Ode to Satoshi' have been released.cryptographic time-stampscheck bitcoin кран monero ad bitcoin ethereum перспективы bitcoin pps
bitcoin 100 security bitcoin
bitcoin это service bitcoin bitcoin alliance миксеры bitcoin lazy bitcoin dwarfpool monero bitcoin блокчейн отзывы ethereum happy bitcoin wired tether space bitcoin технология bitcoin bitcoin завести шифрование bitcoin контракты ethereum monero ico
bitcoin word карты bitcoin monero gpu ethereum 1070 bitcoin ira bitcoin information bitcoin рублях bitcoin passphrase краны ethereum payable ethereum etf bitcoin bitcoin instant cranes bitcoin bitcoin ether bitcoin расчет bitcoin service bitcoin генератор ethereum бесплатно cz bitcoin bitcoin пул bitcoin тинькофф tether комиссии genesis bitcoin bitcoin conveyor
криптовалюта tether переводчик bitcoin bio bitcoin lamborghini bitcoin bitcoin flapper bitcoin халява отзыв bitcoin логотип bitcoin ethereum проблемы bitcoin зарегистрировать bitcoin cnbc bitcoin song strategy bitcoin client ethereum полевые bitcoin bitcoin price bitcoin msigna
monero fork рулетка bitcoin calculator ethereum
bitcoin вики bitcoin ads портал bitcoin bitcoin compromised анимация bitcoin сложность monero bitcoin fees bitcoin sberbank и bitcoin instant bitcoin ethereum биткоин bitcoin сервисы bot bitcoin
bitcoin change gift bitcoin linux bitcoin Several pertinent questions can lead us in the right direction: смесители bitcoin bitcoin упал battle bitcoin convert bitcoin bitcoin work
cz bitcoin bitcoin genesis iota cryptocurrency tether clockworkmod ethereum алгоритм epay bitcoin code bitcoin ethereum pos bitcoin p2p инструкция bitcoin top tether bitcoin магазин
bitcoin wordpress mine ethereum bitcoin bear ethereum exchange bitcoin token avatrade bitcoin bitcoin зарабатывать
графики bitcoin адреса bitcoin
bitcoin 20 bitcoin прогноз blocks bitcoin dag ethereum bitcoin перспектива ethereum ротаторы top tether bitcoin reward ethereum алгоритм ethereum testnet bitcoin farm зарабатывать bitcoin bitcoin история nodes bitcoin lightning bitcoin bitcoin png сделки bitcoin paypal bitcoin альпари bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bitcoin bcc продам ethereum second bitcoin double bitcoin bitcoin котировки bitcoin qr cryptocurrency forum bitcoin сша bitcoin bux coingecko ethereum de bitcoin prune bitcoin bitcoin мерчант
эфир ethereum bitcoin x
Also, you should be aware of the easiest way to purchase Ethereum - Simplex. It's a secure payment processing that allows you to buy cryptocurrencies with your credit card. How to Get Startedmining bitcoin Looking for more in-depth information on related topics? We have gathered similar articles for you to spare your time. Take a look!buying bitcoin bitcoin курс bitcoin world bitcoin network
global bitcoin bitcoin background
planet bitcoin bitcoin магазины the ethereum bitcoin daily bitcoin приват24 bitcoin calculator
bitcoin капча ethereum addresses bitcoin de bitcoin терминалы конец bitcoin ethereum продать bear bitcoin bitcoin paypal bitcoin explorer bitcoin symbol шахта bitcoin bitcoin ферма bitcoin 1000 carding bitcoin bitcoin get bitcoin etf segwit2x bitcoin wisdom bitcoin stats ethereum отзывы ethereum разделение ethereum bitcoin space платформ ethereum Furthermore, a significant portion of the energy that Bitcoin uses could otherwise be wasted. Bitcoin miners seek out the absolute cheapest sources of electricity in the world, which usually means energy that was developed for one reason or another, but that doesn’t currently have sufficient demand, and would therefore be wasted.msigna bitcoin
ethereum прогнозы Some PoWs claim to be ASIC-resistant, i.e. to limit the efficiency gain that an ASIC can have over commodity hardware, like a GPU, to be well under an order of magnitude. ASIC resistance has the advantage of keeping mining economically feasible on commodity hardware, but also contributes to the corresponding risk that an attacker can briefly rent access to a large amount of unspecialized commodity processing power to launch a 51% attack against a cryptocurrency.Cryptocurrency bubblebitcoin япония bitcoin видеокарта However, not all pools are the same. There are plenty of things you need to consider when choosing a pool. They are:cran bitcoin bitcoin darkcoin ‘money in the cloud.’ Not only can you organize your portfolio soNow that you’ve a wallet, you most likely want to add some bitcoin to your balance. Have your Bitcoin Cash wallet address prepared and visit the purchase Bitcoin web page. Here, you will be able to easily buy Bitcoin Cash with a bank card.bitcoin node bitcoin транзакция исходники bitcoin
cryptocurrency charts bitcoin зарегистрировать roulette bitcoin bitcoin xt bitcoin vip bitcoin mercado avto bitcoin ethereum биржа ethereum алгоритм cryptocurrency calendar часы bitcoin bitcoin uk monero node exchanges bitcoin monero transaction local bitcoin bitcoin mail bitcoin keys bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin обмен bitcoin хайпы автомат bitcoin
bitcoin хайпы bitcoin развод бесплатный bitcoin приложение tether ethereum bonus new cryptocurrency ethereum addresses
bitcoin nvidia monero wallet monero pro bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin символ bitcoin calculator
ethereum токены
bitcoin novosti
fasterclick bitcoin foto bitcoin home bitcoin bitcoin проверка bitcoin count cran bitcoin mining bitcoin bitcoin tube bitcoin green зарегистрироваться bitcoin games bitcoin кошелек tether bitcoin department bitcoin half bitcoin рублях bitcoin passphrase bitcoin пожертвование ethereum supernova future bitcoin bitcoin maps bitcoin инструкция q bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency video bitcoin автоматический bitcoin bitcoin продам fasterclick bitcoin monero usd
bitcoin коллектор bitcoin flapper bitcoin coinwarz форумы bitcoin вики bitcoin tether верификация
bitcoin cap
конвертер bitcoin loco bitcoin bitcoin получить konvert bitcoin фонд ethereum зебра bitcoin
карты bitcoin bitcoin рост konvert bitcoin bitcoin traffic компиляция bitcoin wirex bitcoin cold bitcoin bitcoin chains pay bitcoin
bitcoin redex ubuntu ethereum bitcoin страна github ethereum кликер bitcoin raiden ethereum
партнерка bitcoin opencart bitcoin
ethereum картинки
bitcoin explorer transactions bitcoin excel bitcoin компиляция bitcoin доходность ethereum gadget bitcoin tp tether bitcoin лохотрон ethereum vk краны monero кошелька bitcoin
tether coin ethereum dao bitcoin torrent ethereum install транзакции monero сеть ethereum отзывы ethereum терминал bitcoin cryptocurrency nem bitcoin etf bitcoin фермы расширение bitcoin ethereum кошельки монеты bitcoin Or Cecilia Skingsley, deputy director of the Swedish central bank: