Ethereum has successfully fought back to second place in the most important digital currencies. But what does the future bring? Two Ethereum co-founders are rather divided opinion. For many cryptocurrency owners, the new week began with significant losses after the CoinMarketCap website cleared its digital currency exchange rate for three Korean trading venues. While Bitcoin and most Altcoins continue to go down today, owners of Ethereum have reason to be pleased: According to data from "CoinMarketCap", the currency is one of the few that can currently make a profit. On Wednesday morning Ethereum even reached a new all-time high at $ 1,417.38. The second largest cryptocurrency comes closer to Bitcoin in terms of market capitalization. Ethereum co-founder Steven Nerayoff even believes that Ethereum could push Bitcoin off the throne in 2018.
Ethereum more popular In an interview with "CNBC," Nerayoff said he expects to double or even triple the ether rate by 2018 as more and more companies recognize the value of Ethereum Blockchain and use the Ethereum Network for their projects. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum was not designed specifically to handle payments, but to build smart contracts that run only when predetermined conditions are met. With this technology not only finding favor with Fintechs, but also companies from other sectors using it, billions of dollars have flowed into Ethereum's ecosystem, Nerayoff said. Roughly speaking, in 2018 there would be about ten times as many projects based on the Ethereum Blockchain as in the previous year - which should also affect the course. Also, the high public interest in digital currencies in general appreciates the Ethereum co-founder compared to "CNBC" positive. As there are so many opportunities to invest in this area, the entire crypto market is expected to grow, according to Nerayoff. However, this forecast may well be overly optimistic, as one of his former counterparts at Ethereum, co-founder Charles Hoskinson, does not see the future prospects for the broad digital currency market as rosy. Altcoins can lead to market consolidation Hoskinson, who now works for the blockchain company IOHK, which is behind the cryptocurrency Cardano, warned - also on "CNBC" - of a crash and a subsequent consolidation of the crypto market. Investors would increasingly look for alternatives to Bitcoin. Of these, solid cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Cardano or Ripple have benefited in recent years, but even extremely unknown currencies, behind which would be "unrealistic projects", have risen sharply. "What will happen then is that many of these companies that do not have strong foundations or good technologies [...] will sooner or later run into a big wall that they can not overcome," Hoskinson said. Then it would come to a crash, in the course of which the Bitcoin alternatives will disappear without substance. The market for digital currencies in total will emerge from this crash, however, strengthened in the end. Although Hoskinson did not explicitly mention "CNBC", Ethereum probably does not face the risk of a complete disappearance. After all, the cryptocurrency has a solid technical base and functions that are apparently becoming increasingly popular. However, it is unlikely that it will escape the consolidation of the market as a whole. But it can take some time before that happens. Because many of the new Altcoins would not have a realistic project, but have plenty of capital invested - and until that burned and the crash is inevitable, it could possibly take a few more years, according to Charles Hoskinson