Ethereum News
The first contender to challenge Bitcoin (BTC) in the blockchain and crypto realm was the Ethereum network. Ethereum was co-founded by Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di lorio, and Joseph Lubin. The group began to develop the blockchain in 2014 which finally went live on July 30, 2015. Soon after, the co-founders went on to build their own blockchains except for Buterin who still leads Ethereum towards its next milestones.
Ethereum was the first blockchain network to introduce smart contracts which brought an explosion of possibilities for web3 adoption and growth. With smart contracts, developers could launch decentralized applications (dApps) allowing Ethereum to do more than just transact funds like the Bitcoin network did.
Thus, an influx of developers began to work on the Ethereum network where the native token was Ether (ETH). This asset was the first altcoin to exist and it was used to power transactions and compute services on the network. With smart contracts in play, trustless interactions were automated which eventually led to the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
DeFi protocols came to be where users could start their own lending pools and provide liquidity to earn more ETH in return. So, there was a boom in borrowing, lending, and trading on the Ethereum blockchain. Meanwhile, crypto gaming made its debut via the crypto NFT game CryptoKitties. This led to trading and minting NFTs beyond CryptoKitties. Users began to mint art and a sole NFT marketplace debuted as OpenSea, the first of its kind.
Soon, more and more users flocked to the blockchain to participate in crypto games, DeFi protocols, or to simply launch their own (dApps). Eventually, this led to high activity on the chain which meant slow transactions and high gas fees. To combat this, the Ethereum network had to become more scalable, and so, Ethereum 2.0 was introduced where the network would utilize sharing technology to lower gas fees and speed up on-chain transactions.
Under this banner, Ethereum shifted from Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism making the chain a more sustainable one as well. Likewise Ethereum continues to grow and adapt to meet the demands of the industry and Coinbullet will ensure that you won’t miss out on any update from this iconic blockchain project.