For many years, bitcoin was alone in terms of usable cryptocurrency for purchases of goods and services. Lately, there are other coins available and many investors are having a lot of success trading those coins.
But, there are other reasons to use certain coins that go beyond buying and selling which means that bitcoin may not always be the best option. Case in point, Ethereum is the second largest coin because of its unique ability to be used in many different ways.
In this article, I will go over the ways that Ether can be used so you can decide if investing in it is the best move for you.
Ethereum spawns other cryptocurrency
Ethereum uses a different blockchain than bitcoin does and it is far more flexible. This means that there are other coins that can be created on the actual blockchain. With bitcoin, there have to be hard forks to create a new blockchain for new coins to be created.
This makes Ethereum an investors dream. Even though the value is far lower than Bitcoin, it is still something that investors look to for the potential that it has. Sure, when you look at the ticker for ETH to BTC, it doesn’t look very strong in comparison, but there is a huge upside in the ability to create new coins that can be traded for big profits.
Decentralized app (dApp) creation
The hashes on the Ethereum blockchain are not static. In other words, you can build on them in the form of apps that can be used for just about any application that you can think of. From banking apps to storage, there is no limit to what can be created on the blockchain.
There is even its own coding language called Solidity. Developers can use this language to program on the blockchain itself without any third party interference. The other huge benefit to this is that the blockchain infrastructure can be modified and improved upon unlike some other blockchains that are the same as when they were created.
Smart contracts
Each hash on the Ethereum blockchain is a smart contract that cannot be changed or modified. This allows contracts to be stored there and encrypted so that they are totally secure. And there is no need for any third party to verify it.
Businesses are taking advantage of these smart contracts to streamline their operations. Now, instead of needing to have a document go through various channels to get approved, a smart contract will take the place of any internal bureaucracy.
Imagine an escrow system that doesn’t require a bank or any other authority to host the account and the money doesn’t get moved unless both parties agree. There are almost no fees for doing this as there is no bank involved.
Money can be stored there as can property, stocks and anything else of value. It’s these smart contracts that have people excited about the future of the blockchain as it has far more value for what it can do rather than how much the coin can be traded for.
