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 работа click bitcoin
обмена bitcoin
monero обменять bitcoin ocean tether addon
bitcoin blocks bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin lucky сеть bitcoin ethereum монета
vps bitcoin swiss bitcoin bitcoin миксеры client ethereum видеокарты bitcoin bitcoin приложение casascius bitcoin bitcoin перевод monero logo bitcoin protocol bitcoin millionaire bitcoin авито server bitcoin inside bitcoin bitcoin rpc bitcoin 999
ethereum transaction jax bitcoin tera bitcoin ethereum info
bitcoin loto bitcoin green bitcoin сайт accelerator bitcoin магазин bitcoin bitcoin genesis bitcoin халява iota cryptocurrency pull bitcoin bitcoin japan обмена bitcoin bitcoin elena bitcoin weekly bitcoin valet bitcoin биржи iso bitcoin euro bitcoin bitcoin ecdsa отзыв bitcoin bitcoin scam 6000 bitcoin bitcoin заработок bitcoin safe get bitcoin average bitcoin bitcoin sha256 динамика ethereum best bitcoin tcc bitcoin bitcoin сатоши бот bitcoin
600 bitcoin bitcoin казахстан я bitcoin ropsten ethereum mine monero tether майнинг
iota cryptocurrency security bitcoin ethereum токен ethereum frontier bitcoin base акции bitcoin cryptocurrency ico conference bitcoin all bitcoin sell bitcoin bitcoin xl tether app комиссия bitcoin заработать bitcoin
ethereum хешрейт calculator ethereum bitcoin развод japan bitcoin bitcoin work bitcoin окупаемость крах bitcoin bitcoin кликер bitcoin legal bitcoin passphrase bitcoin express футболка bitcoin bitcoin даром продать monero accepts bitcoin bitcoin asic bitcoin обозреватель doge bitcoin ethereum описание bitcoin зебра eos cryptocurrency bitcoin run bitcoin scripting россия bitcoin What Secures Bitcoin – Private Keys and Equal RightsSo far no insurance company has ever paid out on a Bitcoin company's claim. Worth considering also.bitcoin продажа bitcoin x2 bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin заработок
lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin betting preev bitcoin copay bitcoin ann monero котировки bitcoin hub bitcoin ethereum хешрейт bitcoin cost cryptocurrency tech alien bitcoin zebra bitcoin bitcoin обменники bitcoin падение
bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin convert пицца bitcoin ethereum dag
bitcoin фермы forum bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin count пулы bitcoin monero dwarfpool продать bitcoin ethereum miner
обвал bitcoin status bitcoin bitcoin cz ethereum bonus код bitcoin автомат bitcoin microsoft bitcoin bitcoin q ethereum addresses bank bitcoin bitcoin scripting bitcoin webmoney
monero se*****256k1 ethereum ethereum swarm bitcoin ваучер bitcoin видео ethereum addresses supernova ethereum hashrate bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin prices java bitcoin
ethereum кран вывод monero bitcoin get bitcoin фильм bitcoin etf bitcoin pdf bitcoin cracker bitcoin official bitcoin заработка разработчик ethereum tether майнить bitcoin machine bitcoin like bitcoin background майн bitcoin bitcoin png 33 bitcoin nova bitcoin avatrade bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin bitcoin гарант bitcoin price More on proof of workbitcoin gambling bitcoin compromised bitcoin development ethereum логотип pro bitcoin 1024 bitcoin
bitcoin продам ethereum gold bitcoin accelerator bitcoin direct сеть bitcoin bitcoin проект 1080 ethereum tails bitcoin trade cryptocurrency wisdom bitcoin multi bitcoin matrix bitcoin bitcoin вход bitcoin получить polkadot stingray
jaxx bitcoin love bitcoin bitcoin автоматически free monero Numbers are the fundamental abstractions which rule our world. Zero is the vanishing point of the mathematical landscape. In the realm of interpersonal competition and cooperation, money is the dominant abstraction which governs our behavior. Money arises naturally as the most tradable thing within a society—this includes exchanges with others and with our future selves. Scarcity is the trait of money that allows it to hold value across time, enabling us to trade it with our future selves for the foregone opportunity costs (the things we could have otherwise traded money for had we not decided to hold it). Scarce money accrues value as our productivity grows. For these reasons, the most scarce technology which otherwise exhibits sufficient monetary traits (divisibility, durability, recognizability, portability) tends to become money. Said simply: the most relatively scarce money wins. In this sense, what zero is to math, absolute scarcity is to money. It is an astonishing discovery, a window into the void, just like its predecessor zerobitcoin подтверждение bitcoin майнить auto bitcoin network bitcoin ethereum fork monero bitcointalk bitcoin knots forum ethereum
bitcoin poker bitcoin valet ethereum получить bitcoin shop bitcoin elena bitcoin игры bitcoin yen bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin habr lurk bitcoin bitcoin login bitcoin 4 donate bitcoin bitcoin заработок bitcoin cny rocket bitcoin ethereum асик bitcoin авито
сколько bitcoin bitcoin добыть pizza bitcoin bitcoin tm ico ethereum ethereum fork bitcoin рейтинг boxbit bitcoin iso bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency bitcoin swiss 600 bitcoin халява bitcoin bitcoin main bitcoin group калькулятор ethereum биржа monero майн ethereum bitcoin чат bitcoin игры bitcoin minecraft вложить bitcoin mini bitcoin bitcoin стоимость capitalization cryptocurrency ethereum прогноз bitcoin flapper cardano cryptocurrency пожертвование bitcoin пополнить bitcoin ethereum пулы laundering bitcoin bitcoin мавроди
продать ethereum
bitcoin get bitcoin информация water bitcoin создать bitcoin мавроди bitcoin ethereum продать fake bitcoin bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin кран bitcoin pools bitcoin серфинг bitcoin accepted сложность bitcoin monero free bitcoin multiplier bitcoin комиссия продам bitcoin index bitcoin kurs bitcoin ethereum контракт sberbank bitcoin The lightning network will further boost bitcoin’s transaction capacity by taking frequent, small transactions off-chain, only settling on the bitcoin blockchain when the users are ready.matteo monero ethereum pos ethereum пул
bittorrent bitcoin bitcoin base
puzzle bitcoin сети ethereum
For example, a mining card that one could buy for several thousand dollars would speak to under 0.001% of the system's mining power. With such a little shot at finding the following square, it could be quite a while before that digger finds a piece, and the trouble going up aggravates things even. The digger may never recover their venture.etf bitcoin bitcoin gadget транзакции ethereum coin bitcoin курс monero майнер ethereum bitcoin community algorithm bitcoin bitcoin purse moon ethereum etf bitcoin eos cryptocurrency bitcoin чат торговать bitcoin bitcoin frog ethereum siacoin bitcoin blocks ethereum raiden bitcoin weekend майнинга bitcoin ethereum картинки ethereum форки сколько bitcoin пузырь bitcoin bitcoin transaction bitcoin создатель lamborghini bitcoin monero transaction ethereum видеокарты bitcoin rotator usb tether lootool bitcoin sgminer monero bitcoin yandex конвектор bitcoin Prove immutabilitybitcoin книги bitcoin pool adbc bitcoin bitcoin вход de bitcoin cryptocurrency calculator ethereum график обменник ethereum терминал bitcoin delphi bitcoin
monero price ethereum myetherwallet bitcoin scam fasterclick bitcoin blockstream bitcoin Take a deep dive on Bitcoins, Hyperledger, Ethereum, and Multichain Blockchain platforms with the Blockchain Certification Training Course!api bitcoin bitcoin конец bitcoin statistics kurs bitcoin moto bitcoin master bitcoin bitcoin проверка bitcoin официальный dollar bitcoin monero address bitcoin cranes bitcoin key ann monero bitcoin land
bitcoin бонусы tether ico difficulty monero bitcoin ira machine bitcoin polkadot блог ios bitcoin
monero cryptonight github ethereum приложение bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin wmx bitcoin
monero криптовалюта прогнозы bitcoin monero настройка лото bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin bitcoin hardfork cranes bitcoin bitcoin asics wallets cryptocurrency
bloomberg bitcoin forecast bitcoin unconfirmed bitcoin amd bitcoin monero форк bitcoin login
ethereum видеокарты bitcoin service capitalization bitcoin ethereum токены cryptocurrency calendar moneypolo bitcoin bitcoin flex
bitcoin окупаемость gold cryptocurrency ann bitcoin книга bitcoin bitcoin бесплатные simplewallet monero bitcoin список bitcoin оборот bitcoin security bitcoin принимаем bitcoin project форки bitcoin mixer bitcoin bitcoin анимация
cryptocurrency wallet ethereum купить технология bitcoin
bitcoin scam 600 bitcoin email bitcoin ann monero bitcoin шрифт bitcoin lottery rush bitcoin bitcoin шахта 16 bitcoin ethereum erc20 bitcoin rpg часы bitcoin tether транскрипция ethereum coin local bitcoin платформ ethereum waves bitcoin value bitcoin
bitcoin вики key bitcoin byzantium ethereum описание ethereum bitcoin cc ethereum web3 0 bitcoin кредиты bitcoin Because all network nodes independently validate blocks and because miners are maximally penalized for invalid work, the network is able to form a consensus as to the accurate state of the chain without relying on any single source of knowledge or truth. None of this decentralized coordination would be possible without bitcoin, the currency; all the bitcoin network has to compensate miners in return for security is its native currency, whether that is largely in the form of newly issued bitcoin today or exclusively in the form of transaction fees in the future. If the compensation paid to miners were not reasonably considered to be a reliable form of money, the incentive to make the investments to perform the work would not exist.reddit bitcoin Main article: Cryptocurrency exchangeBitcoin doesn’t charge you with anything, unlike the bank which can cost you as much as a 10-pound fee for transfers internationally.bitcoin rt
сигналы bitcoin 'Certainly, the Federal Reserve Note is superior to gold, and that’s why we use it today,'casinos bitcoin bot bitcoin bitcoin пополнить bitcoin evolution asrock bitcoin win bitcoin вложения bitcoin bitcoin land ethereum покупка source bitcoin investment bitcoin bitcoin wallpaper lazy bitcoin надежность bitcoin bitcoin криптовалюта вход bitcoin bitcoin update баланс bitcoin bitcoin onecoin
bitcoin metal ethereum php bitcoin эмиссия monero pools bootstrap tether bitcoin advcash ethereum описание
кошелек ethereum
цена ethereum bitcoin pool основатель ethereum analysis bitcoin продать monero
ico ethereum кошелька bitcoin bitcoin получить разработчик bitcoin
delphi bitcoin bitcoin пул bitcoin bazar equihash bitcoin ethereum forum bitcoin 4 bitcoin rpg
bitcoin elena nicehash bitcoin китай bitcoin api bitcoin
ethereum org homestead ethereum anomayzer bitcoin
bitcoin keys ethereum ферма форумы bitcoin se*****256k1 ethereum ethereum mist bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin чат avto bitcoin bitcoin unlimited адрес ethereum миксер bitcoin cryptonote monero bitcoin mining
ethereum асик
bitcoin обменники The model predicts a six-figure price in the coming years. Frankly, I have no idea if that will come to pass, but it is true that the stock-to-flow ratio of Bitcoin keeps increasing over time, and the supply of new coins coming onto the market is diminishing and ultimately, limited.bitcoin billionaire bitcoin 10
plasma ethereum demo bitcoin bitcoin favicon подтверждение bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin ethereum mine мониторинг bitcoin ethereum валюта ethereum dao
bux bitcoin bitcoin коллектор
faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin background tether bootstrap bitcoin cny покупка bitcoin bitcoin logo bitcoin instagram
billionaire bitcoin bitcoin flapper bitcoin passphrase etoro bitcoin monero прогноз reklama bitcoin tether provisioning bitcoin команды bitcoin onecoin Technically, anyone is able to mine on the Ethereum network using their computer. However, not everyone is able to mine Ether profitably. In most cases, miners must purchase dedicated computer hardware in order to mine profitably. While it is true anyone can run the mining software on their computer, it is unlikely that the average computer would be able to earn enough block rewards to cover the associated costs of mining (See question below for more details).monero client pay bitcoin cryptocurrency wallets bitcoin play masternode bitcoin разработчик ethereum bitcoin fan bitcoin eu ethereum blockchain bitcoin converter bitcoin уязвимости история ethereum ethereum solidity bitcoin обменники bye bitcoin all bitcoin ethereum myetherwallet rinkeby ethereum bitcoin sha256 wirex bitcoin Not satisfied with payments, the Ethereum community is building a whole financial system that's peer-to-peer and accessible to everyone.As if forex was not dynamic enough, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have added a fascinating new dimension to currency trading. In recent years, many forex brokers have begun to accept bitcoins for currency trading, with some accepting a variety of other digital currencies as well. bitcoin xt bitcoin cran lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin xl
bitcoin js blogspot bitcoin продать monero monero freebsd bitcoin rotator arbitrage cryptocurrency bitcoin сигналы bitcoin мошенники logo ethereum ethereum асик scrypt bitcoin connect bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin btc приложение tether bitcoin авито bitcoin pizza bitcoin scripting bitcoin кранов talk bitcoin
bitcoin видеокарты видеокарты bitcoin legal bitcoin bitcoin buying bitcoin ticker
matrix bitcoin
explorer ethereum
mining monero bitcoin рубли polkadot stingray
usd bitcoin