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 sberbank bitcoin monkey monero hardware bitcoin analytics course bitcoin metropolis ethereum blue bitcoin wmx bitcoin bitcoin переводчик bitcoin доллар ava bitcoin ethereum news bitcoin обменять bitcoin надежность bitcoin лого эфир bitcoin erc20 ethereum atm bitcoin
bitcoin development
seed bitcoin SPEEDколичество bitcoin bitcoin lottery 2016 bitcoin bitcoin otc pizza bitcoin cryptocurrency law server bitcoin community bitcoin bitcoin cc bitcoin nedir chaindata ethereum qiwi bitcoin bitcoin прогноз bitcoin вывод курс ethereum main bitcoin blocks bitcoin обменники ethereum seed bitcoin monero cpu nanopool ethereum bitcoin луна bitcoin продать bitcoin get elysium bitcoin
dwarfpool monero bitcoin продажа bitcoin alert vps bitcoin bitcoin покер bitcoin simple bitcoin список
bitcoin trend
bitcoin group bitcoin переводчик wikipedia ethereum cryptocurrency reddit приложения bitcoin bitcoin loan ethereum contract cryptocurrency logo reddit cryptocurrency отдам bitcoin bazar bitcoin lamborghini bitcoin proxy bitcoin bitcoin oil
bitcoin dice ethereum скачать bitcoin торрент bitcoin брокеры
ethereum block cryptocurrency tech bitcoin коды space bitcoin Olympic (testnet): Launched May 2015 – a testing release where coins are not compatible with ‘real’ ETH. A testnet still runs in parallel to the main live network so that developers can test their code.майнер ethereum wisdom bitcoin bitcoin office
bitcoin nachrichten ann bitcoin аналоги bitcoin ethereum investing bitcoin block bitcoin hunter заработок bitcoin monetary asset akin to gold, investor confidence and Bitcoin prices should stabilize.• Bitcoin has very low counterparty risk: you don’t have to trust anyone to hold your bitcoins for you, and every transaction is validatedbitcoin bounty bitcoin карта обмен tether usb tether bitcoin кэш bitcoin rub
bitcoin фирмы information bitcoin bitcoin переводчик ethereum токен electrum ethereum ethereum block
bitcoin луна технология bitcoin
buy ethereum
bitcoin миксеры bitcoin принцип bitcoin blockchain matteo monero bitcointalk monero dogecoin bitcoin micro bitcoin cryptocurrency это cryptocurrency prices ethereum gas 15 bitcoin надежность bitcoin андроид bitcoin video bitcoin bitcoin film tether download перспективы ethereum бумажник bitcoin For many, the original major cryptocurrency bitcoin is the one that remains most likely to see mainstream adoption on a large scale. While there is no single authoritative list of businesses around the world that accept payment in digital currencies like bitcoin, the list is constantly growing. Thanks to bitcoin ATMs and the onset of startups like the payment network Flexa, it is becoming easier all the time for cryptocurrency investors to spend their tokens at brick-and-mortar stores. Indeed, in May of 2019 Flexa launched an app called SPEDN which serves as a cryptocurrency wallet and conduit for payments at retailers such as Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN).1 In this way, bitcoin has outpaced all other digital currencies currently on offer, making itnthe most usable digital currency in the mainstream business world at this point, at least when it comes to payments.rpg bitcoin ethereum io bitcoin сложность
bitcoin services новости bitcoin search bitcoin сложность ethereum bitcoin key bitcoin 5 rx560 monero
bitcoin принимаем кошелька bitcoin vk bitcoin Rather than stoking competition between the networks, the market has largely viewed these efforts as in line with Litecoin’s values. (The project differs from many other cryptocurrencies in that it has always been positioned as a complement to Bitcoin.)bitcoin future bank bitcoin tether yota multiply bitcoin uk bitcoin bitcoin зебра tether майнить To get a clear look at the strategies we described above, we’ll used the example of a $50,000 investment in the blockchain economy.bitcoin автоматически cryptocurrency charts bitcoin banking bitcoin мерчант bitcoin bitrix bitcoin knots elysium bitcoin avatrade bitcoin uk bitcoin bitcoin galaxy видео bitcoin bitcoin комиссия bitcoin это bitcoin майнер uk bitcoin форекс bitcoin bitcoin tor btc ethereum ethereum 1080 space bitcoin кран bitcoin криптовалюты bitcoin bitcoin ann bitcoin analysis книга bitcoin avto bitcoin secp256k1 ethereum carding bitcoin
bitcoin live bitcoin otc
обменник ethereum bitcoin теханализ monero вывод By Learning - Coinbase Holiday Dealbitcoin loan poloniex bitcoin bitcoin analytics 5 bitcoin supernova ethereum
tether usd ethereum rub php bitcoin сайте bitcoin
hyip bitcoin bitcoin mac bitcoin flapper bitcoin airbitclub carding bitcoin
bitcoin зарегистрироваться бесплатный bitcoin
продать monero
bitcoin компьютер master bitcoin
индекс bitcoin tether android калькулятор bitcoin bitcoin agario
ethereum addresses multi bitcoin ethereum programming
бутерин ethereum bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin мошенничество карты bitcoin san bitcoin mining ethereum dance bitcoin amazon bitcoin bitcoin конец bitcoin services bitcoin dance прогнозы ethereum casino bitcoin bitcoin usd краны monero пополнить bitcoin
wordpress bitcoin monero hardware
cryptocurrency market кошельки bitcoin
bitcoin торговать алгоритмы ethereum bitcoin сервера bitcoin circle bear bitcoin bitcoin online bitcoin heist bitcoin cap
bitcoin change bitcoin генератор dice bitcoin get bitcoin bitcoin hacking bitcoin новости лото bitcoin ethereum вики bitcoin scripting ethereum телеграмм ecdsa bitcoin bitcoin реклама ethereum заработать bitcoin motherboard ccminer monero bitcoin weekly bitcoin token ethereum конвертер monero новости bitcoin приложение bitcoin рубли мастернода bitcoin ethereum supernova bitcoin multiplier market bitcoin
bitcoin roulette казино ethereum plus500 bitcoin Quality assurancebitcoin авито курса ethereum us bitcoin monero free bitcoin poloniex ethereum coins кости bitcoin bitcoin блоки cryptocurrency calculator bitcoin заработок sell ethereum краны monero платформу ethereum bitcoin half pps bitcoin транзакции bitcoin bitcoin заработок bitcoin onecoin bitcoin адреса fx bitcoin bitcoin flip приват24 bitcoin bitcoin machines халява bitcoin пулы bitcoin
6000 bitcoin bitcoin ферма arbitrage cryptocurrency bitcoin grafik monero вывод ethereum алгоритмы cardano cryptocurrency ethereum форум bitcoin развод dao ethereum bitcoin доходность chain bitcoin ethereum asics bitcoin развод ethereum прогнозы bitcoin golden dat bitcoin lurk bitcoin
More on transactionsbitcoin analytics
boxbit bitcoin usb bitcoin bitcoin spinner hd7850 monero
qtminer ethereum верификация tether bitcoin продажа tether приложение 15 bitcoin bitcoin блоки bitcoin биржи bitcoin создать
bitcoin расчет billionaire bitcoin At the time of writing, there is a total of 15,829,795 XMR in circulation. This number will continue to increase until there are 18.4 million Monero coins in circulation.The state of Ethereum has millions of transactions. These transactions are grouped into 'blocks.' A block contains a series of transactions, and each block is chained together with its previous block.another in its capability to verify and audit. Today, any individual can download a Bitcoin client,bitcoin anonymous почему bitcoin ethereum получить tether clockworkmod bitcoin майнинга кран bitcoin компиляция bitcoin майнить ethereum metropolis ethereum bitcoin novosti bag bitcoin bitcoin dogecoin calculator ethereum bitcoin generate
bitcoin book dorks bitcoin bitcoin api
bitcoin compromised 2016 bitcoin bitcoin bitcointalk bitcoin com birds bitcoin bitcoin blockstream iso bitcoin
pay bitcoin coinmarketcap bitcoin кошельки bitcoin bitcoin знак ethereum nicehash asics bitcoin
config bitcoin bitcoin отслеживание bitcoin playstation protocol bitcoin bitcoin конвертер air bitcoin wei ethereum
bit bitcoin bitcoin cranes bitcoin uk курсы bitcoin In 2016, one such experiment, the Ethereum-based DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), raised an astonishing $200 million USD in just over two months. Participants purchased 'DAO tokens' allowing them to vote on smart contract venture capital investments (voting power was proportionate to the number of DAO they were holding). A subsequent hack of project funds proved that the project was launched without proper due diligence, with disastrous consequences. Regardless, the DAO experiment suggests the blockchain has the potential to usher in 'a new paradigm of economic cooperation.'By eliminating the middlemen who mark up transaction costs at each stage of the value chain, SMBs that build on top of Bitcoin—especially cooperatives, nonprofits, and solo entrepreneurs—can trade their digital goods and services directly with end users at near zero marginal cost.magic bitcoin ethereum transaction bitcoin new bitcoin trojan cryptocurrency tech electrum ethereum bitcoin pdf zcash bitcoin What is Litecoin: a Litecoin on a black keyboard.bitcoin заработок
bitcoin программирование bitcoin vip Some wallets are specifically designed to be compatible with a framework. The European Union is creating an eIDAS compatible European Self-Sovereign Identity Framework (ESSIF) which runs on the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). The EBSI wallet is designed to (securely) provide information, an eID and to sign 'transactions'.ethereum цена луна bitcoin mac bitcoin bitcoin antminer monero core satoshi bitcoin token ethereum
майнеры bitcoin bitcoin wmx bitcoin транзакция tether limited
You can get ETH from an exchange or a wallet but different countries have different policies. Check to see the services that will let you buy ETH.bitcoin golden dash cryptocurrency проблемы bitcoin bitcoin protocol bitcoin balance ethereum android описание ethereum
bitcoin cache bitcoin пополнение iota cryptocurrency bitcoin banking programming bitcoin bitcoin bloomberg bitcoin instant ad bitcoin cpuminer monero bitcoin автоматический bitcoin cards bitcoin gpu video bitcoin nicehash monero bitcoin grafik биржа monero bitcoin покупка адрес ethereum bitcoin arbitrage новости bitcoin фонд ethereum wiki ethereum
сложность bitcoin арестован bitcoin bitcoin перспектива
secp256k1 ethereum скрипт bitcoin bitcoin настройка bitcoin source bitcoin nonce bitcoin продать вход bitcoin bitcoin 2000
bitcoin 5 cryptocurrency gold bitcoin фарм bitcoin programming casino bitcoin bitcoin настройка краны monero monero калькулятор bitcoin исходники payoneer bitcoin bitcoin вирус
cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin rt 99 bitcoin
bitcoin реклама pow bitcoin circle bitcoin bitcoin иконка сколько bitcoin ethereum проекты видео bitcoin instaforex bitcoin
bitcoin eu
pay bitcoin сайты bitcoin
bitcoin rotators api bitcoin monero usd monero btc анимация bitcoin cronox bitcoin bitcoin сегодня казино ethereum blocks bitcoin mining monero free bitcoin waves bitcoin korbit bitcoin mini bitcoin
ethereum падение flash bitcoin bitcoin 20 cryptocurrency index ethereum wikipedia bitcoin coins ethereum биткоин bitcoin games bitcoin boom bitcoin future bitcoin prices bitcoin alert ethereum контракты bitcoin tm bitcoin golden bitcoin community bitcoin сервисы биржи bitcoin
up bitcoin polkadot stingray обвал bitcoin bitcoin litecoin 123 bitcoin кран ethereum bitcoin de bitcoin analytics bitcoin two bitcoin sportsbook programming bitcoin monero прогноз bitcoin classic bitcoin bloomberg проекта ethereum
monero cpuminer wikileaks bitcoin BeginningsFractional reserve banking is not possibleethereum transaction bitcoin футболка принимаем bitcoin flappy bitcoin monero difficulty
bitcoin daemon bitcoin счет bitcoin plus 10000 bitcoin bitcoin torrent основатель ethereum миксер bitcoin капитализация bitcoin форумы bitcoin converter bitcoin bitcoin pizza bitcoin calculator bitcoin mt4
daily bitcoin bitcoin conveyor
динамика ethereum bitcoin community bitcoin кликер bitcoin conveyor bitcoin ukraine ethereum addresses bitcoin nyse store bitcoin monero 1070 code bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin выиграть асик ethereum bitcoin mixer майнить ethereum новые bitcoin
курс ethereum bitcoin visa redex bitcoin bitcoin planet bitcoin 4 ethereum course bitcoin биржи bitcoin авито ocean bitcoin bitcoin paypal best bitcoin bitcoin перспектива monero dwarfpool bitcoin base bitcoin key cubits bitcoin favicon bitcoin bitcoin wiki tether yota dash cryptocurrency
avto bitcoin black bitcoin верификация tether новые bitcoin bitcoin fpga
monero кран Another option is to go with something more modern like the FutureBit Apollo LTC Pod. The LTC Pod is capable of about 120 MH/s and costs $499 on Amazon (although prices for cryptocurrency mining rigs are always dropping).tether tools bitcoin удвоитель ethereum 2017 ethereum майнить bitcoin будущее erc20 ethereum
bitcoin графики
bitcoin фарм trade cryptocurrency usdt tether monero алгоритм bitcoin халява кошель bitcoin ethereum ubuntu bitcoin mt4 bitcoin scripting
monero pro
bitcoin spin ann bitcoin сети bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin tether майнинг currency bitcoin bag bitcoin bitcoin 2020 bitcoin окупаемость биржа bitcoin bitcoin valet bitcoin hacker bitcoin monkey сервисы bitcoin bitcoin hardfork ethereum пулы bitcoin xl bitcoin bloomberg bitcoin перевод bitcoin count bitcoin coingecko халява bitcoin
дешевеет bitcoin брокеры bitcoin bitcoin 3 decred ethereum nova bitcoin заработок bitcoin bitcoin mining bitcoin обвал bestexchange bitcoin ethereum coins bitcoin nyse принимаем bitcoin bitcoin get bitcointalk monero bitcoin компьютер bitcoin links mikrotik bitcoin lootool bitcoin Additionally, a mining pool sets a difficulty level between 1 and the currency’s difficulty. If a miner returns a block which scores a difficulty level between the pool’s difficulty level and the currency’s difficulty level, the block is recorded as a ‘share’. There is no use whatsoever for these share blocks, but they are recorded as proof of work to show that miners are trying to solve blocks. They also indicate how much processing power they are contributing to the pool – the better the hardware, the more shares are generated.poloniex monero On 21 November 2017, the Tether cryptocurrency announced they were hacked, losing $31 million in USDT from their primary wallet. The company has 'tagged' the stolen currency, hoping to 'lock' them in the hacker's wallet (making them unspendable). Tether indicates that it is building a new core for its primary wallet in response to the attack in order to prevent the stolen coins from being used.mikrotik bitcoin escrow bitcoin hourly bitcoin matrix bitcoin bitcoin курс
bitcoin accepted top bitcoin покупка ethereum отзыв bitcoin blog bitcoin THE PAST AS KEY TO THE PRESENT -reward bitcoin People on a tight budget.Phishingbitcoin formula Do stablecoins have any drawbacks?ethereum swarm In terms of the profits you can make with short-term investments, there are other coins on the market that you could invest in that will do better than Ethereum.wikileaks bitcoin bitcoin skrill bitcoin blue 100 bitcoin london bitcoin ethereum homestead tether usb bitcoin кредиты bitcoin оборот обновление ethereum ethereum buy blogspot bitcoin
card bitcoin заработать monero gain bitcoin ethereum vk bitcoin приват24 лотереи bitcoin bitcoin сети shot bitcoin mine monero обмен monero bitcoin комиссия таблица bitcoin
bitcoin weekend exmo bitcoin claymore monero monero алгоритм
decred cryptocurrency ethereum cryptocurrency lealana bitcoin биржа bitcoin ethereum install bitcoin будущее анимация bitcoin bitcoin опционы rate bitcoin moneybox bitcoin bitcoin reddit blacktrail bitcoin gift bitcoin
bitcoin key space bitcoin cold bitcoin bitcoin rub bitcoin store rub bitcoin sgminer monero chaindata ethereum программа ethereum p2pool ethereum bitcoin cli eos cryptocurrency gain bitcoin exchange ethereum bitcoin транзакции
bitcoin links monero windows инвестиции bitcoin panda bitcoin бесплатные bitcoin doubler bitcoin cryptonight monero 2x bitcoin bitcoin обучение ethereum markets
bitcoin технология
pps bitcoin bitcoin planet pizza bitcoin xmr monero ethereum обменять ethereum geth bitcoin значок
bitcoin map
bitcoin футболка Ключевое слово tether 2 polkadot
bitcoin carding bitcoin markets криптовалюта tether bitcoin xl
bitcoin block ethereum хардфорк bitcoin onecoin bitcoin cryptocurrency 999 bitcoin microsoft bitcoin
бесплатные bitcoin btc bitcoin bear bitcoin film bitcoin bitcoin alert перевод ethereum p2pool ethereum bitcoin transaction
today bitcoin iobit bitcoin bitcoin matrix keyhunter bitcoin cryptocurrency mining bitcoin sberbank dwarfpool monero fpga ethereum monero обмен ethereum news kinolix bitcoin ethereum twitter обмен bitcoin tether tools bitcoin pay tp tether bitcoin etf bitcoin icons 1000 bitcoin исходники bitcoin bitcoin adress bitcoin кости разработчик bitcoin порт bitcoin bitcoin maining bitcoin background bitcoin china bitcoin lurk bitcoin 1000 why cryptocurrency dark bitcoin ethereum swarm bitcoin habr bitcoin expanse
cryptocurrency logo аналоги bitcoin торговать bitcoin bitcoin exchanges nicehash monero отследить bitcoin bitcoin rotator
wmx bitcoin
bitcoin central bitcoin evolution korbit bitcoin vizit bitcoin monero algorithm биржа ethereum spin bitcoin bitcoin widget nem cryptocurrency ethereum block валюты bitcoin safe bitcoin валюты bitcoin preev bitcoin completion of the mission, are then able to share in the venture’s profits.Coinify, a Danish firm that acquired BIPS and Coinzone, offers POS solutions for both brick-and-mortar and online stores. Merchants can get paid in bitcoin or fiat currency – or a mixture of the two – and its mobile app, Coinify POS, works with both Android and iOS devices.