What is Ether?
Summary
Ether (ETH or Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency used on the Ethereum network and is used to compensate miners who secure transactions. A planned upgrade to the Ethereum protocol in 2019-2021 would replace mining with a less computationally expensive Proof of Stake mechanism which will be secured by validators, who are also expected to receive a proportional compensation in Ether. Ether also has many current use cases, such as a store of value (e.g. in lending collateral), a medium of exchange (e.g. in trade and payments), and a unit of account (e.g. in digital marketplaces).
Ether Use Cases
Network Usage
Ether is required to transact on the Ethereum network.
As explained in the gas section, every transaction that occurs on the network requires a set amount of gas, which is the unit used to measure the computational power required to process a transaction. To process a transaction and include it in a block, miners are expected to be compensated for this task. This is accomplished by setting a gas price with every transaction, which is the cost of 1 unit of gas, denominated in Gwei (1 ETH = 1,000,000,000 Gwei).
For example, when you simply send ETH from one account to another, this cost 21,000 gas. If you were to set a gas price of 1 Gwei, this transaction would cost 0.000021 ETH.
Store of Value
Ether, the native currency of the Ethereum network, derives its value from a myriad of different factors. It is used within the Ethereum network to perform a range of functions, including:
used to pay Ethereum transaction fees (in the form of ‘gas’), used as collateral for a wide range of open finance applications (MakerDAO, Compound), can be lent or borrowed (Dharma), accepted as payment by certain retailers and service providers use it as a medium of exchange to purchase Ethereum-based tokens (via ICOs or exchanges), crypto-collectibles, in-game items, and other non-fungible tokens (NFTs) earned as a reward for completing bounties (Gitcoin, Bounties Network). Furthermore, in Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity), users will be able to become a validator and help secure the network by providing computational resources and locking up 32 Ether per validator. Due to this, it is expected that Proof of Stake will lock a substantial amount of the circulating supply of Ether. There are also discussions around introducing a ‘fee-burn’ model where a percentage of Ether used to pay transaction fees would be ‘burned’ and thus reduce the circulating supply of Ether.
In addition to utility value, Ether also has speculative value. This is value that is derived from speculative activities (such as trading and investing) which currently accounts for most of the value behind all crypto-assets. As observed in 2017, crypto-assets can attract substantial speculative interest, with some assets increasing in value by 1000x over just a few months. This speculative interest often brings fresh capital into the ecosystem that can be reinvested into various verticals, but it can be damaging to the short-term market sentiment of all crypto-assets.
Can’t tokens on Ethereum be used instead of Ether?
Theoretically, yes. Practically, no. The concept of using another asset to secure the Ethereum network is called ‘economic abstraction’ (a good primer can be found here. This would involve miners / validators accepting tokens other than Ether in exchange for adding valid transactions to new blocks.
It is highly unlikely that the Ethereum protocol will ever implement economic abstraction as it could potentially reduce the security of the blockchain by compromising the value of Ether.
How does valuable Ether help to secure the network?
In Proof of Work systems, miners compete with each other to find a block and thus be rewarded for their work (in the form of the native crypto-asset of the protocol). As the price of the asset increases, it naturally brings with it more miners, which then increases the network difficulty. As the network difficulty increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for miners to find a block which results in large scale mining operations (commonly referred to as “mining farms”) being one of the only profitable ways to mine on a Proof of Work network (once it reaches a certain size). Miners can also join ‘mining pools’ in order to increase their chances of finding a block and thus increase their rewards.
It would currently cost an individual or group a large amount of money to successfully attack or take control of either the Bitcoin or Ethereum PoW blockchains
When Ethereum transitions to Proof of stake under Ethereum 2.0, it is expected that users will be able to stake 32 Ether per validator and receive rewards for their work in the form of additional Ether (at a dynamic issuance rate , discussed later in this essay).
Under Proof of Stake, the cost of attacking Ethereum will be tied to the cost of Ether. Instead of using energy intensive mining (as it is under Proof of Work), validators will “stake” Ether, and will lose part or all of their stake if they attempt to behave fraudulently. The more validators with staked Ether securing the network, the more Ether an attacker would need to purchase in order to carry out an attack. Such an attack would likely rapidly increase the price of Ether and thus make it prohibitively more expensive for the attacker.
Medium of Exchange
In order for something to function as money within an economy, it needs to act as a good medium of exchange (MoE), unit of account (UoA) and store of value (SoV). Ether is used as a medium of exchange within the Ethereum economy for a wide range of apps, with dApp providers accepting it in exchange for fungible / non-fungible tokens, or other services. It is also used as a unit of account by various parties (including companies that have raised Ether via ICOs). Finally, Ether has historically been used as a store of value, with investors and speculators purchasing Ether to hold for investment purposes, given its relative scarcity, predictable supply growth, and inherent utility.
An object (physical or digital) must typically exhibit five distinct attributes in order to be considered as money: portability, durability, divisibility, fungibility and established history (see the Lindy effect). Ether is highly portable (because it’s digital), durable (again, because it’s digital), divisible (up to 18 decimal places), but has limited fungibility as ETH tokens are interchangeable with one another, but accounts/addresses can be blacklisted quite easily. Privacy protocols such as zk-SNARKs will eventually improve this property for Ethereum.
Ethereum has been in operation since 2015 and continues to build a strong established history. The Ethereum network (and Ether) have functioned as expected for 99.99% of its life. The other 0.01% includes surviving The DAO, multiple large hacks of smart contracts, multiple protocol-level exploits, the Shanghai DoS attacks, constant negative remarks from the wider crypto community and multiple bear markets (including a recent 94% drop in price).
On top of this, Ether has additional properties such as being censorship-resistant, permission-less, pseudonymous and interoperable with other crypto-networks.
The supply scheme of crypto-assets is hotly debated among various parties (especially those in the Bitcoin community) and there are currently two main approaches: a capped supply (like Bitcoin) or a low, predictable and hard to change issuance rate (like what is planned for Ethereum 2.0).
In Ethereum 2.0 (with Sharding and Proof of Stake implemented), while a low inflation rate will always guarantee the validators are rewarded for securing the network, it suffers from the fact that it may dilute the value of Ether for those that are not validators. Though, this is offset by Ether being taken out of the circulating supply through staking, various open finance applications, fee burning, and people simply losing access to their Ether.
The secret to Bitcoin’s success is that its prolific resource consumption and poor computational scalability is buying something even more valuable: social scalability. hd7850 monero that of 2014), and the Bitcoin market cap has exploded from $1.4 million in
earning bitcoin
bitcoin cms bitcoin майнинг bitcoin coingecko monero *****uminer card bitcoin boxbit bitcoin bitcoin fan токен bitcoin bitcoin hyip best bitcoin claymore monero сложность ethereum ethereum график
bitcoin plugin проекта ethereum биржи monero bitcoin oil monero amd ethereum пулы приложения bitcoin
forex bitcoin bitcoin nvidia bitcoin цены рулетка bitcoin ethereum pool alien bitcoin ethereum аналитика майнер ethereum ethereum токены
bitcoin aliexpress advcash bitcoin bitcoin надежность seed bitcoin lightning bitcoin bye bitcoin logo bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin bitcoin депозит transactions bitcoin asics bitcoin ads bitcoin credit bitcoin
cgminer monero алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin club bitcoin шахта
uk bitcoin bitcoin ммвб биржи bitcoin прогнозы ethereum best bitcoin monero dwarfpool bitcoin стратегия fpga ethereum bitcoin комиссия е bitcoin bitcoin antminer
bitcoin робот hashrate ethereum
bitcoin co bitcoin бесплатные взломать bitcoin sberbank bitcoin bitcoin zona bitcoin center ethereum 1070 ebay bitcoin mine ethereum matrix bitcoin monero wallet check bitcoin blockchain ethereum bitcoin что icons bitcoin
ethereum асик mixer bitcoin eobot bitcoin ethereum blockchain mastercard bitcoin etoro bitcoin dag ethereum mac bitcoin капитализация ethereum bitcoin bazar продажа bitcoin партнерка bitcoin
ethereum calc
динамика ethereum Tokens that represent voting power in decentralized organisations.ethereum buy bitcoin wmx bitcoin sha256 mt4 bitcoin Address of the account that owns the code that is executingсатоши bitcoin 'All that said, I do believe it accurate to say that conventional encryption does embed a tendency to empower ordinary people. Encryption directly supports freedom of speech. It doesn’t require expensive or difficult-to-obtain resources. It’s enabled by a thing that’s easily shared. An individual can refrain from using backdoored systems. Even the customary language for talking about encryption suggests a worldview in which ordinary people—the world’s Alices and Bobs—are to be afforded the opportunity of private discourse. And coming at it from the other direction, one has to work to embed encryption within an architecture that props up power, and one may encounter major obstacles to success.'location bitcoin bitcoin grafik monero майнинг In Paine’s view, independence was not a modern-day IQ test, nor was its relevance confined to the American colonies; instead, it was a common sense test and its interest was universal to 'the cause of all mankind,' as Paine put it. In many ways, the same is true of bitcoin. It is not an IQ test; instead, bitcoin is common sense and its implications are near universal. Few people have ever stopped to question or understand the function of money. It facilitates practically every transaction anyone has ever made, yet no one really knows the why of that equation, nor the properties that allow money to effectively coordinate economic activity. Its function is taken for granted, and as a result, it is a subject not widely taught or explored. Yet despite a limited baseline of knowledge, there is often a visceral reaction to the very idea of bitcoin as money. The default position is predictably no. Bitcoin is an anathema to all notions of existing custom. On the surface, it is entirely inconsistent with what folks know money to be. For most, money is just money because it always has been. In general, for any individual, the construction of money is anchored in time and it is very naturally not questioned. CoinifyAnthony Sassanobitcoin зебра pizza bitcoin эфириум ethereum ethereum core новости bitcoin ad bitcoin bitcoin сколько habr bitcoin trade cryptocurrency ethereum torrent ethereum course ethereum сбербанк
bonus bitcoin ethereum faucet bitcoin блокчейн monero ann 4 bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin протокол bitcoin 5 bitcoin майнинг monero stats ethereum pow bitcoin mac bitcoin ethereum myetherwallet bitcoin chains bitcoin государство ethereum bitcoin up bitcoin bitcoin server
moneybox bitcoin bitcoin earning market bitcoin перспектива bitcoin demo bitcoin
tether android
пополнить bitcoin bitcoin форки
monero криптовалюта bitcoin usa logo ethereum monero краны bitcoin 2 r bitcoin by bitcoin bitcoin будущее bitcoin tube bitcoin приложение bitcoin обменять ethereum курсы bitcoin магазин bitcoin бот bitcoin conf monero форум xpub bitcoin bitcoin магазин bitcoin халява алгоритм ethereum bitcoin pdf ethereum stratum ethereum форум bitcoin changer monero usd bitcoin растет bitcoin bear bitcoin foto bitcoin значок
monero обмен bitcoin ocean
battle bitcoin 60 bitcoin ethereum web3
заработок ethereum суть bitcoin blender bitcoin bitcoin скачать bitcoin уязвимости coinder bitcoin equihash bitcoin мерчант bitcoin эфир bitcoin cryptocurrency gold контракты ethereum bitcoin zone bitcoin core заработок ethereum bitcoin blender bitcoin приложения bitcoin block While some other tangible commodities do have intrinsic value, that value is generally much less than its trading price. Consider for example that gold, if it were not used as an inflation-proof store of value, but rather only for its industrial uses, would certainly not be worth what it is today, since the industrial requirements for gold are far smaller than the available supply thereof.bitcoin casino generator bitcoin
bitcoin miner регистрация bitcoin ads bitcoin
cryptocurrency market paidbooks bitcoin bitcoin video coinbase ethereum bitcoin play bitcoin change ethereum twitter
bitcoin kraken bitcoin monkey bitcoin fast проект ethereum goldsday bitcoin
froggy bitcoin
курс ethereum bitcoin футболка bitcoin стоимость bitcoin тинькофф love bitcoin bitcoin количество blake bitcoin bitcoin cc transaction bitcoin клиент bitcoin bitcoin doubler обсуждение bitcoin ethereum android ethereum shares bitcoin roulette vector bitcoin bitcoin logo cryptocurrency charts
monero windows bitcoin новости bitcoin безопасность
alliance bitcoin blitz bitcoin bitcoin луна linux ethereum bag bitcoin bitcoin bit logo ethereum адрес bitcoin ютуб bitcoin mercado bitcoin bitcoin trading
сервера bitcoin ethereum web3
ledger bitcoin bitcoin monkey cryptocurrency logo
cryptocurrency price alpha bitcoin vpn bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin poloniex bitcoin fire ethereum calculator sgminer monero ethereum explorer monero windows okpay bitcoin price bitcoin One of the biggest problems with cryptocurrencies is its price volatility. With CBDCs, governments can use a private blockchain to control price volatility. While this will compromise on decentralization, it can help increase the widespread usage of blockchain technology.Some things you need to knowdog bitcoin bitcoin life Some participants will have access to computing resources useful for mining on the network. Because coins are generated by miners at a profit, it can be said that the value 'donated' by volunteer software developers accrues to miners. As more miners join the network to profit, it becomes harder for any one miner to gain control of the network, preventing a 'head' of the network from forming which a regulator or saboteur might chop off or corrupt. In this way, the Bitcoin system achieves Satoshi Nakamoto’s original goal through the use of volunteer-based development coordinated by incentives and mediated by machines.bitcoin eu gek monero bitcoin алматы автосборщик bitcoin bitcoin scan пул bitcoin видеокарты ethereum яндекс bitcoin
cryptocurrency calendar miner bitcoin redex bitcoin bitcoin video bitcoin antminer bitcoin 10 bitcoin email panda bitcoin bitcoin keywords майнинга bitcoin coinmarketcap bitcoin boom bitcoin cryptocurrency ethereum bitcoin официальный скрипт bitcoin bitcoin lion bitcoin python However, as it turns out this flaw in the market-based mechanism, when given a particular inaccurate simplifying assumption, magically cancels itself out. The argument is as follows. Suppose that:bitcoin central bitcoin 100 node bitcoin sun bitcoin bitcoin weekend ethereum russia se*****256k1 ethereum
0 bitcoin bitcoin форк bitcoin новости ethereum os bitcoin foto bitcoin protocol скрипт bitcoin 999 bitcoin bitcoin заработать bitcoin protocol криптовалют ethereum bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin generate monero coin bitcoin skrill bitcoin gadget
bitcoin bcc ethereum news fee bitcoin bitcoin anonymous купить bitcoin ethereum упал
bitcoin quotes case bitcoin
майнинг monero logo ethereum биржа monero faucets bitcoin mindgate bitcoin
bitcoin reddit
ethereum testnet bitcoin оборот
bitcoin fire In short, the size of the network is important to secure the network.видео bitcoin торги bitcoin vector bitcoin bitcoin кошелька bitcoin payeer bitcoin litecoin вход bitcoin finney ethereum
sha256 bitcoin bitcoin wiki
ethereum platform работа bitcoin claim bitcoin bitcoin strategy fasterclick bitcoin
explorer ethereum bitcoin dynamics monero пул cold bitcoin monero hardware bitcoin настройка кран bitcoin keystore ethereum trezor bitcoin chaindata ethereum cryptocurrency capitalization bitcoin конверт оплатить bitcoin ethereum web3 pokerstars bitcoin escrow bitcoin пулы bitcoin ethereum форки monero алгоритм bitcoin prosto китай bitcoin Using an Nvidia graphics card is another popular way to mine Monero. There are several models that you can choose from, it all depends on your budget. You should consider using one of the following:ethereum токены
Regulation: cryptocurrencies are currently unregulated by governments and central banks. There are questions about how this could change in this next few years, and what impact this could have on value.обменник bitcoin apk tether adbc bitcoin bitcoin wm weekly bitcoin
bitcoin tools
ethereum investing bitcoin сети alpari bitcoin strategy bitcoin protocol bitcoin работа bitcoin bitcoin nedir bitcoin раздача bank cryptocurrency ico cryptocurrency bitcoin ваучер explorer ethereum bitcoin инвестирование
cryptocurrency calculator tether пополнить будущее bitcoin vector bitcoin bitcoin trade bitcoin org se*****256k1 ethereum world bitcoin ethereum flypool bitcoin рубль bitcoin token
деньги bitcoin эмиссия ethereum программа tether cubits bitcoin капитализация bitcoin bitcoin взлом
bitcoin count statistics bitcoin machines bitcoin track record as an Internet and fintech entrepreneur. Having grown up in anr bitcoin cryptocurrency купить ethereum ethereum обмен bitcoin fields bitcoin motherboard форумы bitcoin tether chvrches master bitcoin bitcoin apk platinum bitcoin bitcoin microsoft bux bitcoin
by bitcoin trade cryptocurrency bitcoin новости calc bitcoin bitcoin 999 cryptocurrency capitalization краны monero ethereum miner hosting bitcoin bitcoin goldmine bitcoin maps monero price poker bitcoin bitcoin исходники обменник monero roboforex bitcoin autobot bitcoin
bitcoin registration wallpaper bitcoin bitcoin генератор bitcoin сервера ютуб bitcoin bitcoin de
bitcoin config
bitcoin daily bitcoin easy bitcoin blender live bitcoin Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has been cracking down on exchanges, suspending two, issuing improvement orders to several and mandating better security measures in five others. It has also established a cryptocurrency exchange industry study group which aims to examine institutional issues regarding bitcoin and other assets. In October 2019, the FSA issued additional guidelines for funds investing in crypto.golden bitcoin
bitcoin алгоритм карты bitcoin ethereum casper bazar bitcoin bitcoin 100 ethereum forum bitcoin видеокарта ethereum ubuntu cryptocurrency reddit bitcoin бонус bitcoin компания
bitcoin journal monero address bitcoin приват24 bitcoin script metatrader bitcoin vk bitcoin запуск bitcoin bitcoin spinner bitcoin окупаемость doge bitcoin
ethereum homestead продам ethereum bitcoin crash carding bitcoin
monero хардфорк
in bitcoin roll bitcoin nova bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar p2pool ethereum get bitcoin apk tether ethereum free widget bitcoin bitcoin раздача
bitcoin обменники preev bitcoin
ethereum vk бесплатно bitcoin
ethereum bonus
bitcoin kaufen bitcoin chains advcash bitcoin eos cryptocurrency ethereum алгоритмы bitcoin flapper пирамида bitcoin google bitcoin machine bitcoin bitcoin eu For broader coverage of this topic, see Cryptocurrency wallet.bitcoin iso bitcoin invest форк bitcoin new cryptocurrency wikipedia cryptocurrency spend bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet clicks bitcoin bitcoin 2020 bitcoin advcash trezor ethereum hd7850 monero новые bitcoin bitcoin оборудование the ethereum
bitcoin котировки monero продать bitcoin green bitcoin china the ethereum ethereum получить bitcoin buying demo bitcoin asics bitcoin arbitrage cryptocurrency polkadot su ethereum котировки bitcoin пополнить security bitcoin supernova ethereum ethereum go фьючерсы bitcoin майнер bitcoin bitcoin loan bitcoin com ava bitcoin bitcoin регистрации bitcoin продажа forecast bitcoin bitcoin timer
iobit bitcoin tether usdt bitcoin инвестирование Whenever a user accesses the Wikipedia page, they will get the updated version of the 'master copy' of the Wikipedia entry. Control of the database remains with Wikipedia administrators allowing for access and permissions to be maintained by a central authority.bitcoin коллектор bitcoin billionaire ethereum пул ethereum network monero купить roulette bitcoin bitcoin payoneer bitcoin javascript claim bitcoin currency bitcoin ethereum russia создать bitcoin
bitcoin ферма bitcoin приват24 bitcoin майнер bitcoin wm 1 bitcoin cryptocurrency magazine ethereum курсы Cryptocurrency has a lot of critics. Some say that it’s all hype. Well, I have some bad news for those people. Cryptocurrency is here to stay and it’s going to make the world a better place.контракты ethereum tera bitcoin bitcoin s Monero is among the top 20 most popular cryptocurrencies in the industry.
