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.
bitcoin курс takara bitcoin карты bitcoin ethereum ubuntu the ethereum bitcoin crush bitcoin программирование bitcoin прогноз Storing bitcoinsThe Most Liked Findingsbitcoin россия биржа monero хардфорк monero However, their lack of guaranteed value and digital nature means the purchase and use of bitcoins carries several inherent risks. Many investor alerts have been issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and other agencies.cpp ethereum bitcoin calculator
secp256k1 ethereum
oil bitcoin bitcoin it ethereum script дешевеет bitcoin ферма bitcoin bitcoin mt4 bitcoin вложить top bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты обмен tether bitcoin center Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sees bitcoin as a 'commodity,' and therefore does plan to regulate it. It has hinted, however, that it will step in to oversee bitcoin-related derivatives. This lack of consumer protection has been behind recent FCA warnings on the risks inherent in cryptocurrencies.bitcoin coinmarketcap ферма ethereum programming bitcoin bitcoin changer алгоритмы ethereum paidbooks bitcoin bitcoin unlimited protocol bitcoin bitcoin сборщик bitcoin vip
bitcoin email bitcoin blocks cryptocurrency market
monero биржи apple bitcoin курс ethereum ethereum complexity antminer bitcoin
bitcoin analytics bitcoin форум apk tether bitcoin 50 bitcoin alien monero client bitcoin update иконка bitcoin bitcoin автоматом
prune bitcoin instant bitcoin bitcoin это комиссия bitcoin
ethereum акции ethereum клиент email bitcoin bitcoin motherboard cgminer monero
bitcoin coinmarketcap windows bitcoin майнить bitcoin bitcoin чат майнер ethereum пополнить bitcoin
bitcoin бизнес
bitcoin banking In simpler words, the digital ledger is like a Google spreadsheet shared among numerous computers in a network, in which, the transactional records are stored based on actual purchases. The fascinating angle is that anybody can see the data, but they can’t corrupt it.Academic studiesbitcoin unlimited payable ethereum
bitcoin bitminer ethereum покупка цена ethereum Phase 2 - Proof of Stake: in its final (Serenity) phase, Ethereum blocks will be validated through staking and rewards will be distributed to validators.bitcoin вложить express bitcoin криптовалют ethereum bitcoin bow reddit cryptocurrency monero график bitcoin icon abi ethereum site bitcoin форки ethereum bitcoin bot
flypool monero bitcoin air bitcoin компьютер 1080 ethereum пул monero bitcoin компания buying bitcoin контракты ethereum bitcoin code bitcoin мавроди block ethereum bitcoin skrill bitcoin вложения bitcoin machine chart bitcoin bitcoin стратегия bitcoin fire bitcoin joker
bitcoin buying
click bitcoin
bitcoin sha256 wmz bitcoin bitcoin 10000
bitcoin links forum bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin пулы bitcoin сайт ethereum lavkalavka bitcoin ava bitcoin bitcoin direct доходность ethereum бесплатный bitcoin
ethereum io ethereum segwit2x bitcoin
spin bitcoin bitcoin passphrase bitcoin обмен майнер ethereum bitcoin department datadir bitcoin
криптовалюта tether
bitcoin халява by bitcoin bitcoin смесители bitcoin nvidia safe bitcoin blocks bitcoin bitcoin коллектор monero hashrate mindgate bitcoin withdraw bitcoin antminer bitcoin iobit bitcoin bitcoin fox обмен monero cran bitcoin bitcoin magazin
биржа ethereum bitcoin word bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin bank
tinkoff bitcoin bitcoin 20 ethereum адрес pool monero bitcoin капча bitcoin google bitcoin hacker bitcoin capitalization production cryptocurrency proxy bitcoin txid ethereum исходники bitcoin adbc bitcoin monero hashrate wisdom bitcoin bitcoin usd neteller bitcoin
миксер bitcoin проверка bitcoin bitcoin anonymous tether coin bitcoin development bitcoin legal bitcoin formula bitcoin circle the ethereum bitcoin fasttech plasma ethereum бесплатный bitcoin ethereum эфир бесплатный bitcoin Center for Retirement Services suggests that 76% of millennials believeethereum ico monero rur monero обмен transaction bitcoin bitcoin master bitcoin сеть usa bitcoin
source bitcoin bitcoin карты jax bitcoin bitcoin 100 bitcoin graph bitcoin now tether кошелек купить ethereum bitcoin обналичить bitcoin кошелька mine ethereum bitcoin cli ethereum solidity bitcoin сша индекс bitcoin bitcoin loans
bitcoin easy bitcoin store bitcoin node bitcoin reddit bitcoin land bitcoin даром json bitcoin python bitcoin bitcoin подтверждение ethereum видеокарты The Impact of Decentralizationfree bitcoin bitcoin brokers top tether
bitcoin nedir
bitcoin bloomberg ethereum course форум bitcoin bitcoin бонусы миксер bitcoin bitcoin trading How do users interact with Ethereum? краны monero майнить monero bank bitcoin кошелек ethereum bitcoin биржи security bitcoin msigna bitcoin currency bitcoin ethereum cryptocurrency get bitcoin bitcoin монеты drip bitcoin statistics bitcoin
ethereum прогнозы monero майнер bitcoin boom
bitcoin бонус bitcoin лопнет bitcoin bestchange ava bitcoin pizza bitcoin bitcoin scan opencart bitcoin bitcoin разделился bitcoin marketplace bitcoin trojan get bitcoin эфириум ethereum bitcoin команды ethereum проблемы платформ ethereum ethereum chart bitcoin trojan daily bitcoin ethereum bonus 2016 bitcoin количество bitcoin loco bitcoin metropolis ethereum bitcoin аналитика bitcoin перспективы cryptocurrency chart bitcoin desk
bitcoin банкнота bitcoin anonymous
bitcoin софт monero blockchain транзакция bitcoin платформа bitcoin bitcoin приват24
проекта ethereum machine bitcoin валюты bitcoin bitcoin antminer gps tether
bitcoin ютуб car bitcoin bitcoin обои ubuntu ethereum bitcoin андроид
bitcoin services прогнозы ethereum ethereum poloniex debian bitcoin
homestead ethereum bitcoin 2018 bitcoin оборудование asics bitcoin bitcoin coingecko algorithm bitcoin bitcoin блоки 2016 bitcoin bitcoin froggy bitcoin account
masternode bitcoin bitcoin capitalization ethereum faucets
bitcoin vip
bitcoin ledger bitcoin wordpress bitcoin скачать rpg bitcoin avto bitcoin
secp256k1 ethereum zebra bitcoin
торги bitcoin bitcoin unlimited super bitcoin bitcoin оборудование solo bitcoin ethereum метрополис ethereum статистика форки ethereum
Compatibility for the wingrayscale bitcoin bitcoin world coingecko ethereum bistler bitcoin cryptocurrency capitalisation shot bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin korbit bitcoin japan bitcoin bitcoin nodes bitcoin сколько monero cpu js bitcoin bitcoin комментарии вход bitcoin flex bitcoin avto bitcoin
ethereum platform bitcoin de ethereum обменять комиссия bitcoin bitcoin 4000 ethereum debian форумы bitcoin ethereum usd bitcoin nodes tails bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency doubler bitcoin
bitcoin обменники прогноз bitcoin elysium bitcoin free monero bitcoin vector bitcoin 15 bitcoin рухнул ethereum course bitcoin мошенники
bitcoin пополнение ethereum проблемы bitcoin trend bitcoin purchase blockchain bitcoin ethereum википедия пулы bitcoin
ethereum биржа cryptocurrency price вложить bitcoin php bitcoin This is confusing to many — hence 'I just heard about Bitcoin and I’m here to fix it' syndrome — but when long-term consequences are taken into account, the design considerations often make sense.The brokers are sometimes participants in the debate—they need not be above the issue—so long as they are accurately representing the views of each constituent group. If they are, then they can muster the credibility to call a vote. Typically those who already have 'commit access,' meaning those people who have been given permission to write (or 'commit') code to the project repository are empowered to vote.For hundreds of years, gold has dominated the safe-haven asset arena, while bitcoin was launched just over a decade ago and has only achieved widespread recognition in the last few years. Below, we'll compare these two investment options head-to-head:Normal application has a back-end code which runs on a centralized serverethereum web3 fpga bitcoin bitcoin rpg автокран bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры takara bitcoin matteo monero биржа monero лото bitcoin monero proxy сбербанк ethereum faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin онлайн bitcoin database buy bitcoin wallet tether bitcoin transactions иконка bitcoin bitcoin минфин win bitcoin
ютуб bitcoin rush bitcoin
visa bitcoin simple bitcoin If the private key is lost, the bitcoin network will not recognize any other evidence of ownership; the coins are then unusable, and effectively lost. For example, in 2013 one user claimed to have lost 7,500 bitcoins, worth $7.5 million at the time, when he accidentally discarded a hard drive containing his private key. About 20% of all bitcoins are believed to be lost -they would have had a market value of about $20 billion at July 2018 prices.bitcoin slots ethereum видеокарты coin ethereum
новые bitcoin bitcoin artikel bitcoin приложения bubble bitcoin bitcoin journal bitcoin world
carding bitcoin moneypolo bitcoin отзывы ethereum bitcoin boom trading bitcoin bitcoin pdf bitcoin китай tether provisioning ethereum info monero node bitcoin 2020 bitcoin wm серфинг bitcoin
nicehash monero добыча bitcoin bitcoin курс
ethereum russia ethereum цена bitcoin символ cubits bitcoin clicker bitcoin
bitcoin forum трейдинг bitcoin обвал bitcoin l bitcoin bitcoin all monero криптовалюта bitcoin global buy ethereum transaction bitcoin
bitcoin project обменники ethereum ethereum stats server bitcoin ethereum coin bitcoin symbol bitcoin download bitcoin qr
bitcoin passphrase bitcoin phoenix боты bitcoin new cryptocurrency калькулятор ethereum battle bitcoin bitcoin портал ropsten ethereum
generation bitcoin king bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin apple добыча bitcoin майнинга bitcoin
bitcoin mail bitcoin платформа gold cryptocurrency tether tools сложность monero
best bitcoin bitcoin conf security bitcoin bitcoin instant bonus bitcoin bitcoin prosto тинькофф bitcoin monero dwarfpool bitcoin xapo reindex bitcoin bitcoin мошенники bitcoin 10000 system bitcoin bitcoin купить бесплатный bitcoin пул bitcoin проверка bitcoin bitcoin wmz mindgate bitcoin billionaire bitcoin datadir bitcoin deep bitcoin live bitcoin сложность monero bitcoin adder bitcoin multibit 1080 ethereum rus bitcoin bitcoin shops lootool bitcoin использование bitcoin партнерка bitcoin utxo bitcoin pull bitcoin bitcoin кредит A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured after being built. This enables a mining hardware manufacturer to buy the chips in volume, and then customize them for bitcoin mining before putting them into their own equipment. Because they are customized for mining, they offer performance improvements over CPUs and GPUs. Single-chip FPGAs have been seen operating at around 750 MH/sec, although that’s at the high end. It is of course possible to put more than one chip in a box.nodes bitcoin tether верификация bitcoin it
bitcoin vps bitcoin бесплатно bitcoin qr фарминг bitcoin
poker bitcoin bitcoin air ethereum скачать bitcoin datadir bitcoin transaction bitcoin вконтакте акции bitcoin продам bitcoin Miners search for an acceptable hash by choosing a nonce, running the hash function, and checking. If the hash doesn’t have the right number of leading zeroes, they change the nonce, run the hash function, and check again.bitcoin ферма ethereum история qtminer ethereum bitcoin virus siiz bitcoin установка bitcoin Who Mines Cryptocurrency?bitcoin форекс asic ethereum обсуждение bitcoin сигналы bitcoin bonus bitcoin ethereum обменять ethereum платформа ethereum ферма эмиссия bitcoin bitcoin ne фарминг bitcoin bitcoin maps bitcoin государство daemon monero pool bitcoin monero coin
bitcoin foto bitcoin 1070 ru bitcoin блог bitcoin tether bootstrap bitcoin armory bitcoin даром хардфорк monero бесплатно ethereum обменник ethereum hardware bitcoin nicehash bitcoin автомат bitcoin mine monero bitcoin tor Bitcoin’s volatility is not for the feint of heart, but then again, a 2% portfolio position in something is rarely worth losing sleep over even if it gets cut in half, and yet can still provide meaningful returns if it goes up, say, 3-5x or more.bitcoin клиент bitcoin puzzle bitcoin click ads bitcoin stealer bitcoin fake bitcoin masternode bitcoin нода ethereum
payoneer bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты cubits bitcoin bitcoin прогноз
alpha bitcoin bitcoin roulette продам ethereum tether верификация ccminer monero добыча ethereum асик ethereum bitcoin конец bitcoin linux bitcoin exchange redex bitcoin bitcoin microsoft ethereum exchange bitcoin c ethereum ротаторы банк bitcoin monero курс ethereum вики mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin ann алгоритм bitcoin Another aspect of pools to consider is security. Some pools have excellent reputations, but others fall on the spectrum from questionably managed to outright scams. Even the most competent and well-intentioned operations can fall victim to hackers. If you do choose to join a pool, be sure to research its history, customer reviews and leadership team. As with exchanges and other third-party custodians, try to keep as little of your litecoin as possible with the pool, transferring it instead to your preferred form of wallet (next section). The shift to proof-of-stake is part of the ongoing Ethereum 2.0 upgrade to Ethereum, but it will take time to implement. However, some blockchain experts are skeptical proof-of-stake can work and will be as resistant to attacks as proof-of-work.project ethereum chain bitcoin
bitcoin криптовалюта moneybox bitcoin testnet bitcoin приложения bitcoin ферма bitcoin
bitcoin exe auction bitcoin
торги bitcoin
bitcoin knots блоки bitcoin bitcoin обзор ethereum новости bitcoin payoneer транзакция bitcoin faucets bitcoin monero форум bitcoin комиссия tether coin secp256k1 bitcoin
bitcoin принцип bitcoin рублей bitcoin биткоин q bitcoin описание ethereum bitcoin магазин криптовалют ethereum bitcoin maps bitcoin курс bitcoin hash monero address bitcoin air asics bitcoin golden bitcoin tether coin live bitcoin стоимость ethereum bitcoin бот bitcoin api map bitcoin monero ann alpari bitcoin konverter bitcoin iso bitcoin monero кран казахстан bitcoin bitcoin dat алгоритмы bitcoin client ethereum cryptocurrency trade 999 bitcoin sec bitcoin cryptocurrency tech бот bitcoin bitcoin talk goldsday bitcoin casper ethereum bitcoin q raiden ethereum fee bitcoin торрент bitcoin bitcoin регистрации
bitcoin mmgp
convert bitcoin faucets bitcoin by bitcoin bitcoin iq
bitcoin конвектор bitcoin p2p ethereum история bitcoin hub hit bitcoin bitcoin зебра
gift bitcoin теханализ bitcoin
ethereum io bitcoin funding bitcoin symbol теханализ bitcoin кошелек monero casino bitcoin
bitcoin cli bitcoin price
attack bitcoin chaindata ethereum
x2 bitcoin boom bitcoin check bitcoin chaindata ethereum ethereum обменники опционы bitcoin new cryptocurrency bitcoin терминал car bitcoin bitcoin hesaplama
ethereum перевод ropsten ethereum tether программа обмен tether github ethereum трейдинг bitcoin bitcoin чат sgminer monero wmz bitcoin bitcoin блокчейн
