Ethereum’s price action and gas fees are causing concerns over its future, however, the network’s developments in the NFT space and beyond have been progressing. Polygon has surpassed Ethereum in active addresses, has a fraction of the fees and more speed. Ethereum’s utility is proving its potential for years to come, and its tokenomics and fundamentals are attracting more and more institutional money away from Bitcoin. Ethereum has also settled a staggering $6 trillion in transactions this year, pulling more institutional money to Ethereum. The future for Ethereum is highly optimistic, with an incremental upgrade this month and a merge of chains set for early 2022.
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Ethereum: Rocking and Rolling Harder Than Music Legends
Ethereum’s success in the NFT space and beyond has been impressive, but the network’s congested traffic and high gas fees have been a major pain point for many users. This has led some to question whether Ethereum is playing its Chinese Democracy and whether it’s a dud after a long wait for EIP-1559. However, good news has come from the lackluster performance of the network.
Polygon Takes Center Stage
Layer 2 solutions for blockchain networks, like Polygon, are going to be crucial moving forward to make Ethereum more usable for users. Polygon just recently surpassed Ethereum in active addresses, and it offers all the benefits of Ethereum smart contracts with lower fees and faster speed.
Mirror: The Possibility of Revolutionizing Journalism
One way Ethereum is revolutionizing how we share information is through Mirror, an Ethereum-based blogging platform that offers smart contracts built-in to enable tipping, NFT collectibles and auctions, user signatures from ETH wallets, and permanent backups via Arweave – all on the blockchain.
ETH Burns Brighter Than Bitcoin
Ethereum has proven its utility over the past year, settling a staggering $6 trillion in transactions and showing a 369% increase in 2020. This has resulted in more institutional money flowing to Ethereum instead of Bitcoin. Ethereum will continue to make large moves thanks to its tokenomics and fundamentals, making it more than just digital oil to Bitcoin’s digital gold.
Altair Upgrade and Sharding
The upcoming Altair upgrade on the Beacon Chain will bring incremental upgrades to Ethereum, which will warm up the upcoming merge of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake chains in early 2022. Chain sharding, which will bring lower gas fees, is expected sometime in Q4 of 2022, making layer 2 solutions increasingly important in the future of Ethereum.
