All eyes are on cryptocurrencies. And there is no denying that even those who were skeptical about the possibility of earning from cryptocurrencies have now taken a closer look and even invested themselves. At this point, there is no denying that Bitcoin is the number one virtual currency while Ethereum comes in second.
Ethereum has delivered as much as 4,000% gains this 2017 alone and is currently around $839. However, just like Bitcoin, Ethereum is slowly becoming vulnerable to problems within its network.
Cryptokitties Exposed Ethereum
Cryptokitties, a game that runs on the second most popular virtual currency, changed how Ethereum is viewed by its investors. It has revealed operational problems that could potentially play a role in the virtual currency’s long-term survival. This simple game has been able to clog the processing of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. It even caused a jump of about 600% in the volume of unprocessed transactions in the process.
It took one silly game to expose vulnerabilities of Ethereum. It was evidenced by the massive increase in unprocessed transactions along with downtime and congestions. In fact, it has become a victim of its own popularity. And because of this, a lot of stakeholders are worried about how Ethereum can keep up considering that it is already next in line to Bitcoin.
What Could This Mean for Ethereum Investors?
Moving forward, investors should be more careful. This means that they should think of the scaling risk that is involved in this virtual currency. And because of this, it is also possible that Ethereum could plateau and even drop in value the same way as Bitcoin that is also suffering from delayed transaction processing.
Investors should also take a closer look at other altcoin alternatives that they can explore in lieu of Ethereum. You have Qtum which is one of the virtual currencies that can potentially take Ethereum’s place. Qtum in May 2017 was selling for $0.30. Fast forward today, it is selling for more than $70 per share. Qtum offers businesses an easy-to-use solution to build decentralized apps and could even work well on mobile devices.
Another possible option that can take the place of Ethereum is NEO. This cryptocurrency now has a market capitalization of $4.79 billion and has earned the top 15 position in terms market capitalization in the world of virtual currencies. It is typically referred to as the Ethereum of China. It makes use of Ethereum-like smart contracts in order to guarantee borderless and digital solutions without the use of any third party.
What makes NEO a strong contender is its additional code bases including C#, VB.Net, Java, and Kotlin. On the contrary, Ethereum is simply limited to Solidity. It only means that developers need to acquire the technology before they can even make something work on the Ethereum network.
What does the future hold for Ethereum? It just goes to show that there are still a lot of things that we don’t know even about the top virtual currencies today. Who would’ve anticipated that a game selling overpriced digital cats could actually expose Ethereum?
