Ether is a big favorite for beginning investors, and frequently recommended over Bitcoin. Today I look at three big reasons for it's popularity.
Price, Proof of Stake and Proof of Functionality
Price, this is one of the most frequent reasons people who are looking for the best cryptos to invest in, give for choosing Ether over Bitcoin.
While I know that Bitcoin is divided into satoshis and you can buy what you can afford, as in you don't have to buy one whole Bitcoin, I think most new investors think of tokens like they thing of stocks and seek to buy a whole token, just like they seek to buy a whole share.
Proof of Stake, the recent change of ethereum blockchain from proof of work, to proof of stake consensus greatly reduced the amount of energy used by the ethereum network. This really increased its value in the eyes of many climate change concerned crypto investors and potential investors. While research into the amount of energy used by Bitcoin in one year does reveal it is a staggering amount, by comparison it is less then of the amount of energy used by one country (America) to light christmas decorations on christmas eve and christmas day, and less then 1/10 of a percent of the amount used by the banking industry. But facts dont always matter, the popular narrative does.
Proof of functionality, while Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, and it was designed to be an actual currency used in digital peer to peer exchange, and it sometimes is used as a medium of exchange to buy things. It seems that the degree to which it is used as a medium of exchange is very small, and up until recently it's functionality was very limited. IT is thought of by many as a Gold Coin, more a collectible, then something you would spend.
Ether on the other hand is frequently used to buy collectible items, starting with the CryptoKitties digital collectibles and of course leading to the huge NFT Market of the last few years. This along with increased use of Ether for the tokenization of assets, and the other functionalities on the ethereum blockchain like banking, lending, leasing, and decentralized finance type of investing, make Ether seem to have a whole world of functionality, while Bitcoins functionality is quite limited.
Summary
I think Ether will continue to be a popular choice for new investors moving into cryptocurrency investing for these reason: Price or affordibility, Proof of Stake for less energy consumption and to calm the concerns over contributing to global warming, and the extreme amount of functionality the ethereum blockchain possesses. There are other good reasons to invest in Ether over Bitcoin, and while it doesn't mean I think it is a superior investment, I certainly think it is a different type of investment from Bitcoin, and this diversity is part of the beauty ofg cryptocurrency. I am not a tribalist, who thinks my favoritte token is the best , and the rest are trash. But I recognoze and respect there differences, and re4alize the choices they provide us are part and parcel of the beauty of the cryptocurrency experience.
