Ethereum Cryptocurrency: All You Need to Know To Decide Before Invest

The popularity of cryptocurrencies has skyrocketed recently, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. You might be wondering if now is the right time to invest in these digital assets given all the hype. It’s always a good idea for investors to understand the underlying assets before they pull the trigger. It is not unusual for cryptocurrency to be different from investing in stocks and bonds.

We will therefore be covering the popular blockchain technology Ethereum (ETH). Ethereum, like many other blockchains, has its own coin called ether. Let’s have a closer look at Ethereum and decide if you should invest.

A Basic Overview of Ethereum

Ethereum is decentralized, open-source blockchain technology. The native cryptocurrency of Ethereum is ether. This coin ranks second to Bitcoin (BTC) as the most valuable cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. Although Ethereum has a lower market cap than BTC, it is still the most popular blockchain.

It is important to know that Ethereum is not the same thing as BTC. While Bitcoin is intended to be a digital currency in its primary function, Ethereum has broader purposes. Ethereum is an open-source operating platform and computing platform. It supports distributed applications (dApps), and smart contracts.

What is Ethereum worth?

The Ethereum price has fluctuated greatly, just like many other cryptocurrencies since its launch in 2015. It was priced at $1 back then and has remained there for many months. In January 2018, its price hit $1,358. This was the highest Ethereum price ever. As with many other cryptocurrencies, the price of ETH began to drop. In December 2018, ether was at $83 

Although the price of Ethereum has fluctuated over time, it has generally risen. The price was $140 at the beginning of April 2020. It is now at $3,349 as of May 18, according to Coindesk. This is a significant increase in just one year. It has since fallen to $1,848, as of June 25.

Ethereum Brief History

The above Ethereum price history shows that even if you bought $1000 Ethereum in 2015, there would have been thousands of percent in gains. Below are some key moments from Ethereum’s price history since its inception.

• 2014: Ether goes on the market for the first-ever time. People could buy 2,000 Ether for 1 BTC. The Ethereum blockchain was made public the following year.
• 2016: A disagreement over who should be reimbursed for the money lost by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) leads to the hack of 2016. The DAO fork that resulted in Ethereum Classic, a continuation of Ethereum’s original blockchain, leads to the creation and launch of Ethereum Classic.
• 2017: The CryptoKitties video game is among the most popular dApps launched. In 2017, the Ethereum price jumped from $8 to $700.
• 2021: EIP-1559 is an important change to the London hard fork. This makes network fees more predictable and decreases the supply of Ethereum.

Forks of Ethereum

Since its launch, Ethereum has seen many changes. Farrington says that a fork can happen when blockchain technology is updated or changed. It’s just like a fork in a road. It can happen as a hard or soft fork.

There are two types of Ethereum forks: Soft forks and Hard Forks.

• Soft forks are minor changes that can be made to the blockchain and still work backward compatible. While node operators can remain connected to the blockchain, they have incentives to upgrade to the most recent version if they wish to continue earning ether.

• Hard forks are major updates that can dramatically change the system. They are not compatible with older versions. To keep the blockchain running, node operators must upgrade to the most recent version. A split can also occur if there is a dispute.

Is Ethereum a good investment?

You may still be unsure if Ethereum is worth your investment. Here are some pros and cons to Ethereum that will help you decide.

• Ethereum is decentralized, and cannot be censored.
• Ethereum is used in real-world applications, notably DeFi and NFTs.
• Ethereum is currently in the process to upgrade, which will remove all scaling and high-fee issues.

Although Ethereum is volatile, it has the potential to make huge gains. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to invest in Ethereum. You can purchase as little as $10 worth of Ethereum using eToro

Where can you buy Ethereum?

First, open an account with a trusted broker to buy Ethereum. They are reliable in that they charge reasonable fees and you can trust them to not run off with your assets. It is always a good idea to take your cryptocurrency assets off of any crypto exchange platform. 

Kucoin is the best option for new investors. Kucoin is a large crypto exchange that allows you to trade, buy, and sell cryptocurrencies. Kucoin offered basic trading options as well as margin, futures, and peer-to-peer trading (P2P).