The value of Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, could triple in 2018 - as many companies start turning to this blockchain.
This is in any case what indicates one of the first contributors of Ethereum, Steven Nerayoff. In an interview with the US television channel CNBC, the developer says that the increase in the number of projects developed on the platform, but also the growing interest of the general public for crypto-currencies, could allow the Ether of record new historical records - and perhaps even surpass Bitcoin in terms of market cap.
"What you see with Ethereum is an exponential increase in the number of projects. Billions of dollars are currently being pumped into the ecosystem, with perhaps 10 times more projects this year than last year. This could easily lead to a doubling or tripling of the price by the end of the year, "said Mr. Nerayoff.
He adds :
"You are currently seeing a tremendous increase in interest across a broad range of sectors. Fintech is a "natural" field, but we can now see that some developers are much more imaginative. There are projects in the oil and gas sectors, there are governments that use Ethereum in their applications, we see it in gaming, in all kinds of industries. "
Beyond the soaring number of projects, Nerayoff believes that Ethereum is benefiting from its ability to manage transactions faster and at lower costs than Bitcoin does.
"People are also using it as money," he said. "Lower transaction costs intensify network utilization, increasing 'network effects'. The more users there are, the more projects that are developed, and the more programmers there are. "
And it would be very difficult to give him wrong. It is easy to see, through the tool provided by Etherscan.io, the exponential growth in the number of transactions carried out on the Ethereum network, which now exceeds the threshold of one million:
Launched in 2015, Ethereum is a platform based on blockchain technology that allows developers to deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). While Bitcoin was conceived exclusively as a means of electronic peer-to-peer payment, Ethereum wants to go much further by creating a "global computer".
Its co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, is currently looking for solutions to allow the network to "scaler", thus facing the sharp rise in its popularity.
Ether has exceeded the threshold of $ 1,200:
At the writing of this article, Ethereum was able to regain control of its position as dolphin in the ranking established by CoinMarketCap.
In the space of 7 days, the price of Ether had risen by 38%, from 874 to 1207 dollars: