In 2018 Ethereum Value Could Triple Leaving Bitcoin Behind

According to Ethereum co-creator Steven Nerayoff, the value of the cryptocurrency has all chances to increase three times in 2018. In his interview to CNBC, Nerayoff said that today we can observe an exponential increase in the number of projects with Ethereum.

“There are billions of dollars being poured into the ecosystem right now — maybe 10 times more projects this year than last year, which could easily lead to a doubling, probably a tripling in price by the end of the year,” he said.

The rates of growth that Ethereum is showing this year are unbelievable. Only last week for the first time in its history it crossed the $1000 mark. But now according to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum is valued at $1,220.68. But it’s worth mentioning that at the moment Bitcoin’s price is $15,109.00.

While the idea of Bitcoin creation was to design a cryptocurrency for peer to peer electronic payment system, Ethereum initially has another purpose. It was designed to be used for smart contracts that execute when specific requirements are met.

Today, more and more companies working in a wide range of different spheres all over the world are beginning to understand what benefits Ethereum’s protocol could bring them.

Nowadays, FinTech is being used in such spheres that could have seemed surprising some years ago. The number of projects is increasingly growing gaining creativity and complexity. This technology is being applied practically everywhere: from governmental projects, oil and gas industry to gaming.

One of the factors contributing to the growth of Ethereum’s price is its significantly growing usage thanks to the capacity of Ethereum to process transactions with less time and financial expenses in comparison with other cryptocurrencies.

As it was noted by Nerayoff, Ethereum is gaining its popularity among a wide audience who began using it for currency. Lower transactional cost is a huge benefit for the entire network that attracts more users, stipulates development of more projects and inspires more programmers.

In spite of his strong belief into the potential of Ethereum, Nerayoff doesn’t depreciate the role of Bitcoin in attracting public attention to cryptocurrencies in 2017. Ethereum co-creator predicts further expansion of the entire space due to the enormous interest of a wide audience.

But Narayoff’s former partner Charles Hopkinson is not so optimistic saying that the cryptocurrency market consolidation is possible only after a crash. In his opinion, some existing ventures have too unrealistic projects or don’t have necessary technologies for their realization and definitely will face with barriers that they won’t be able to overcome. A lot of them are to fail, said Hopkinson.