1. Home
  2. ethereum killer

ethereum killer

Do ‘Ethereum killers’ have a future? Here’s what the crypto community says

While many of the arguments support Ethereum, some argue that things can still go south for the network.

Repeated outages of one of the most popular blockchains believed to have the potential to dethrone the Ethereum network sparked a conversation among community members about the future of those carrying the burden of being called an “Ethereum killer.” 

A member of the cryptocurrency forum on Reddit opened a conversation on Ethereum killers and questioned their ability to succeed in the current crypto space. According to the community member, those dubbed as Ethereum killers are not likely to succeed because they do not get the same adoption that Ethereum does.

In addition, the community member argued that even if a chain becomes faster than Ethereum, the market capitalization of Ether (ETH) is very high. Therefore, the crypto user believes that “no ETH killer will actually kill ETH.”

Various members of the community chimed in and gave their thoughts on the issue. From pointing out that the so-called ETH killers did not deliver on promises to suggesting dropping the term “ETH killer” altogether, crypto community members discussed the future of ETH killers.

Community member commenting on the topic. Source: Reddit

One community member argued that "there's no such thing as an Ethereum killer." The Reddit user believes that there's only ETH, and then there’s the rest of the layer-1 networks that fight for the remaining market share of the layer-1 market. 

Redditor comparing 2018 to the recent cycle. Source: Reddit

One Redditor argued that the term ETH killer should be dropped because at this point, "ETH has become entrenched." The community member believes that while ETH can still be dethroned, it cannot be killed. "At that stage, the whole market would have to be wiped out which is also a statistical unlikelihood,” they wrote.

Related: Solana Labs co-founder: We don’t want to kill ‘beautiful’ Ethereum

While many of the arguments are pro-Ethereum some still believe that things can still go south for the network. A community member said that the idea that ETH “will never fail is ridiculous.” The Reddit user argued that ETH’s adoption doesn’t mean that it’s a done deal as many argued that the space is still in its early stages. They added:

"We are either early and it’s way too premature to call absolute certainties or it’s done and we are no longer early.”

As others contributed serious arguments to the discussion, some joined in to add a touch of humor to the somehow heated online debate. One community member posted “Ethereum is the true Ethereum killer killer” while another said, “What doesn't kill ETH makes ETH stronger.”

The discussion came a few days after Solana, one of the most recognized Ethereum killer blockchains, suffered another issue on its network. On Feb. 25, Solana faced a slowdown in block production, leading to a network restart. The incident led to various disruptions in user transactions. The issue also sparked outrage on Twitter, with some mocking the network and calling it a “transaction killer.”

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

All ‘Ethereum killers’ will fail: Blockdaemon’s Freddy Zwanzger

“All the Ethereum killers from back in the day didn't succeed, and I don't expect them to succeed at all,” Blockdaemon’s Ethereum lead told Cointelegraph.

Blockdaemon’s ETH ecosystem lead Freddy Zwanzger believes Ethereum will retain its leadership position in the crypto ecosystem over the coming years due to its utility as a smart contract platform and upgrades to the network following the Merge. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph during the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) this week, Zwanzger said:

“It'll continue to be a leader. I mean, obviously, the first and most important smart contract platform, and that's not going to change.”

Blockdaemon is an institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure platform that offers node operations and infrastructure tooling for blockchain projects.

The Blockdaemon employee also took aim at so-called “Ethereum killers” — competing Layer 1 blockchains — which have tried to topple Ethereum from its leadership position but failed.

“All the Ethereum killers from back in the day didn't succeed, and I don't expect them to succeed at all.”

Crypto projects that have been touted as “Ethereum killers,” include Solana, Cardano, Tezos, and Polkadot, among others. Many of these blockchains tout lower fees and faster transactions but have fewer active developers and certain blockchains place h less emphasis on decentralization.

To date, none have managed to displace Ethereum from its number two spot in terms of market cap. Cardano and Solana currently sit in the eighth and ninth positions, Polkadot is ranked 11 while Tezos is ranked 37, according to Coinmarketcap.

Zwanzger believes that the upcoming Merge will further propel Ethereum onwards and upwards in terms of technology and price.

“There are so many good things in there, like environmentally-friendliness, [and] all sorts of things that are beneficial to a lot of people. Staking will become more attractive,” he said.

“It’s a show of strength and commitment that the roadmap is materializing.”

The Ethereum Merge involves transitioning it from the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mining consensus to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, and has been tentatively scheduled to be rolled out around September 19.

However, Zwanzger admitted the big future challenge for Ethereum will continue to be scalability.

“The original Ethereum roadmap was focused on sharding, but that’s not so much the case anymore. Now we have a roll-up-centric roadmap, so scaling via layer 2 solutions.”

Currently, the “proof-of-work” consensus model allows the blockchain to process 15 to 20 transactions per second (TPS) according to data from Blockchair.

A quantum leap in the number of transactions per second is expected sometime in 2023 when the Ethereum network introduces sharding.

Sharding is a multi-phase upgrade to improve Ethereum’s scalability and capacity by splitting the entire network into multiple portions in order to increase the network capacity.

Sharding will work hand in hand with layer 2 solutions to further “supercharge” the scalability of the network.

Post-sharding, cofounder Vitalik Buterin has claimed the network will be capable of transaction speeds up to 100,000 TPS.

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

Avalanche pushes out Dogecoin from top-10 after AVAX price soars 100% in November

The market cap of AVAX touched $30.32 billion for the first time in history.

Avalanche (AVAX) is now the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after more than doubling in price since the start of November.

AVAX entered the top-10 crypto index after pushing out Dogecoin (DOGE). In doing so, its circulating market valuation reached $30.60 billion for the first time compared to Dogecoin's $30.30 billion.

AVAX circulating market cap. Source: CoinMarketCap

AVAX price hits another record high

AVAX price climbed while ignoring price corrections elsewhere in the crypto market after Nov. 10.

Notably, Bitcoin (BTC) plunged by nearly 20% from its record high of $69,000, and Ether (ETH) — the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and Avalanche's top competitor — slipped by 19% from its all-time high at around $4,867.

Nonetheless, their downside sentiment failed to impact AVAX over the past 10 days. The Avalanche token rallied by more than 64% in the period of Bitcoin's and Ethereum's price correction, hitting one record high after another, as shown in the chart below.

AVAX/USD daily price chart versus BTC/USD and ETH/USD. Source: TradingView

On Nov. 21, AVAX reached $141.50, its best level to date, after rising by nearly 25% in two days.

Deloitte FOMO

AVAX broke its positive correlation with BTC and ETH in the days leading up to "Big Four" accounting firm Deloitte's decision to build its disaster relief platforms atop the Avalanche blockchain platform.

According to Deloitte's press release published on Nov. 17, the "Close as You Go Service" aims to simplify "disaster reimbursement applications for victims of natural disaster, by aggregating and validating the documentation required for funding."

The high-profile partnership prompted analysts to anticipate higher demand for AVAX, which operates as a basic unit of account between the multiple subnetworks on the Avalanche platform and as a currency that users could stake on the network to earn passive incomes.

Related: Avalanche soars to new highs after Deloitte adoption — But risks emerge for AVAX price

Pseudonymous market analyst Seq tweeted a rocket emoji to indicate its long-term bullish outlook for AVAX, adding that Deloitte's partnership with Avalanche would enable more exponential parternships.

"It can be difficult to grasp the scope of Avalanche," wrote Seq, adding that the project has witnessed "incredible growth" despite launching just one blockchain.

In detail, Avalanche aims to feature multiple chains, with some performing core functions while others being more application-specific. Meanwhile, all non-core blockchains (called subnets) must depend on validators that stake AVAX on any of Avalanche's three base platforms, dubbed P-Chain, X-Chain, and C-Chain.

Avalanche network in a nutshell. Source: Avalanche Documentation

There is "only the C-Chain," wrote Seq, noting that it is just one blockchain "in [one] of an infinite number of subnets that are possible." The analyst added:

"We are just scratching the surface of its potential, and has only been 14 months since mainnet! Avalanche is just getting started!"

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

Is Polkadot eyeing $100 next? DOT price jumps 25% triggering classic bullish chart pattern

The bullish outlook appears as Polkadot prepares to auction highly anticipated parachain slots on its network.

Polkadot (DOT) looks poised to rally toward $100 in the coming sessions as it triggers a classic bullish reversal setup.

Dubbed Inverse Head and Shoulders (IH&S), the technical structure appears when an instrument forms three troughs in a row, with the middle one, called the Head, being the lowest, and the other two — known as the right and left shoulders — of almost equal heights. 

Meanwhile, the level at which all the troughs top out represents the "neckline."

So it appears DOT has been forming an IH&S ever since its price correction from the $43-$49 price range (neckline), as shown in the chart below. On Nov. 1, the Polkadot token broke above the area and continued rallying the next day to bring its month-to-date returns to almost 25% while bumping its record high to $53.35.

DOT/USDT daily price chart featuring IH&S pattern. Source: TradingView

The price jump accompanied an increase in trade volumes, showing that traders supported the move above the IH&S neckline. As a result, DOT's prospects of rising by as much as the maximum distance between its IH&S's head and neckline (~$39) improved.

As a result, Polkadot's profit target out of its IH&S setup comes out to be near $90, with possibilities of extended rallies toward $100, a psychological resistance level.

Parachain auction FOMO

Polkadot's latest price rally came as traders' focus shifted on its highly anticipated parachain auctions on or around Nov. 11.

The Polkadot team announced Monday that their council had passed the motion that enables parachain registrations and crowdloan beginning Nov. 4, adding that the proposal now awaits a go-ahead via a public referendum.

In detail, crowdloans enable rivaling projects to raise capital via DOT to bootstrap their parachain auctions.

Therefore, those who support the projects lock their DOT into a sponsored account for a predefined period. In return, they receive rewards in the form of air-dropped tokens from the project competing for the parachain slot.

Kusama fractal

In June, Polkadot's test-net chain, dubbed Kusama (KSM), conducted a similar parachain slot auction in June. The protocol ended up proving the effectiveness of the crowdloan mechanism as users contributed more than 1.11 million KSM across the five parachain auctions.

KSM supply dedicated to its first five crowdloans as of Aug. 6. Source: Subscan, Messari

That represented over 10% of the total KSM supply locked.

Related: Kusama network set to launch its next five parachain auctions

The KSM price rallied in the days leading up to the auction in June. It peaked out on May 16 at around $645 and then dropped over 78% to $138.50 two months later. The selloff also surfaced amid an overall crypto market decline, led by China's full-fledged ban on crypto activities.

KSM/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Hence, it appears DOT has also been undergoing the so-called "buy-the-rumor" price rally as traders bet higher on the parachain auction event. But in the absence of a China-like event, the cryptocurrency looks to be pursuing the IH&S setup mentioned above.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

JPMorgan Strategist Estimates Ether’s Fair Value at $1,500 Amid Competition From ‘Ethereum Killers’

JPMorgan Strategist Estimates Ether’s Fair Value at ,500 Amid Competition From ‘Ethereum Killers’A strategist at JPMorgan stated that ether’s fair value is way lower than its current price. According to a set of measurements based on network activity, he calculated ether’s value at $1,500, 55% lower than its market price. One of the reasons argued for this assessment, is that Ethereum is not so unique anymore, and […]

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

Institutional traders flock to Solana as demand for ETH and BTC flattens

Institutions were betting big on Solana investment products last week, with SOL-tracking products attracting 86.6% of institutional inflows to digital asset products last week.

Institutional traders have flocked to Solana (SOL) as demand for Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) exposure has flattened, with SOL investment products representing a whopping 86.6% of total weekly inflows crypto investment products last week.

According to the Sept. 14 issue of CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly, Solana (SOL) investment products saw inflows of $49.4 million between Sept. 6 and Sept.10. The combined total inflows for crypto investment products equated to $57 million for the week, with SOL seeing a 275% week-over-week increase to represent 86.6% of total inflow.

The surging inflows to Solana products coincided with the price of SOL gaining 36% over the same period. The report concluded:

“A combination of price appreciation and inflows now brings Solana’s assets under management to $97 million, the 5th largest of all investment products.”

Digital asset products have now seen inflows for the fourth consecutive week, with demand for altcoins significantly outweighing the appetite for BTC products which saw minimal inflows of $200,000.

The inflows were also partially offset by institutional investors offloading $6.3 million worth Ether exposure as the underlying asset’s price dropped 10% during the week.

Despite Cardano (ADA)’s highly anticipated introduction of smart contracts on Sept. 13, institutional flows ADA-tracking products saw a 46% decrease in inflows compared to the previous week.

Multi-asset products, Ripple (XRP), Polkadot (DOT) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) also saw inflows of $3.2 million, $3.1 million, $1.7 million and $600,000 respectively.

Related: Finance Redefined: DeFi’s $4M lobsters and Solana gaming, Sept. 6–10

According to CoinShares estimates, institutional asset managers currently represent a total AUM of $56.3 billion combined — marking a decrease of 9% compared to the week before as the broader crypto markets experienced a pullback across the board.

Flows were mixed between asset managers, with CoinShares XBT and Purpose funds shedding $24.7 million and $45.5 million respectively while 21Shares, ETC Group and CoinShares saw inflows of $75 million, $13 million and $6.1 million respectively.

Top Institutional manager Grayscale remained dominant, representing 74% of sectors AUM with $41.8 billion.

Grayscale announced a partnership with alternative asset fintech provider iCapital Network on Sept. 13. The deal will enable iCapital's advisors to offer the firm’s high-net-worth clients access to Grayscales’ digital asset services via a diversified market-cap-weighted investment strategy.

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

Bull flag breakout pushes Avalanche toward $80 as AVAX price hits another record high

The bullish setup emerges as traders raise their upside bets in smart contract protocols that rival Ethereum.

Avalanche (AVAX) looks poised to hit $80 as per a classic technical pattern after hitting a new high of over $65 on Sept. 12.

Dubbed as "Bull Flag," the structure emerges as a brief sideways/downward trend following a strong price move higher. As a result, Bull Flags tend to look like downward sloping channels, represented by two parallel trendlines that trap the price action.

Additionally, the market's underlying trade volume dries up as the prices move lower, indicating weakness in the downtrend. Therefore, Bulls Flags typically resolve following a break above their upper trendlines, with prices pushing as high as the previous uptrend's height, i.e. Flagpole.

AVAX's price action since Aug. 17 has apprehensively led to the creation of a Bull Flag pattern.

AVAX/USD daily price chart featuring bull flag. Source: TradingView.com

The chart above shows the structure's fruition, right from the $37-long uptrend (Flagpole) to a downward sloping channel's formation to an upside breakout. As a result, AVAX price now looks to be targetting $80.

That is primarily because of Bull Flags' popular profit targets; analysts look for the price to break higher with length equal to the flagpole's size. Therefore, measuring from the breakout level ($45.64), the AVAX profit target comes to be at around $82.

AVAX/USD daily price chart featuring Bull Flag profit target. Source: TradingView.com

The setup appears as the Avalanche token reaches another record price level, hitting $66.47 for the first time in history, following a 618% rebound rally from its July 20 low of $9.25. Meanwhile, on a year-to-date (YTD) timeframe, its gains are an astonishing 1,988%.

DeFi and NFT boom behind soaring AV

The rally in Avalanche markets closely followed similar moves across smart contracts tokens that rival Ethereum, the leading public ledger behind the booming decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) space.

But Ethereum's reign as a top smart contracts protocol has come under doubt due to its expensive transaction costs and network congestion issues. As a result, the market has made space for the so-called "Ethereum killers" like Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Fantom (FTM), Avalanche, and others.

For instance, the total value locked (TVL) inside the Solana ecosystem has jumped by 165% in the previous seven days, as per data reported by DeFi Llama, while SOL/USD in the same timeframe has jumped by over 42%.

Similarly, Fantom's TVL has soared 12.73%, with FTM/USD exchange rates rising by 39% in the last seven days. As for Avalanche, the TVL has spiked 0.5% and AVAX/USD has risen by 41.10%.

Blockchains and their TVL performances. Source: DeFi Llama

In contrast, Ethereum's TVL has declined by 22.69%, signaling liquidity migration to rivaling chains.

AVAX/USD started rallying, particularly after the Avalanche Foundation launched a namesake DeFi incentive program on Aug. 18. The organization allocated $180 million to DeFi protocols that want to migrate from Ethereum chains to Avalanche one.

Related: Avalanche Rush to give out more than 180M in DeFi incentives

Benqi, a decentralized non-custodial liquidity market protocol built atop Avalanche, received $3 million from the foundation's grant.

Benqi is the leading dapp by TVL in the Avalanche ecosystem. Source: DeFi Llama

Avalanche also witnessed growth in the NFT and DeFi projects looking to run atop its public ledger. That included a partnership Topps, a collectible and trading card maker that employed the Avalanche blockchain to launch its “2021 Topps Major League Baseball Inception NFT Collection.”

Nonetheless, Ethereum remains the dominant force in the smart contracts space. The project is undergoing major network upgrades to resolve its scalability and network fees issues, i.e. by updating its core proof-of-work protocol to proof-of-stake completely by next year.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump

Uniswap V3 Offers Far Higher Exposure, Lower Risk For Staking

Uniswap has revealed an overview of V3 of the DEX which is due to launch on May 5, described by Uniswap as “the most flexible and capital-efficient AMM ever designed.” V3 will also launch separately on the L2 Optimism solution.

User Capital Now Goes 4000 Times Farther

Uniswap accounts for 20% – 25% of all daily transactions on the Ethereum network, and V2 has handled $135 billion in volume in the year since its launch.

DeFi users have flocked to the DEX giant to stake their capital and earn rewards, and in May, they will be able to significantly raise their exposure with lower downside risk.

V3 introduces concentrated liquidity and multiple fee tiers, allowing liquidity providers (LPs) control over the price ranges their capital is allocated to as well as compensation rising with higher risks taken by LPs.

“By concentrating their liquidity, LPs can provide the same liquidity depth as v2 within specified price ranges while putting far less capital at risk.”

LPs will be able to provide capital with up to 4000x capital efficiency compared to V2, offering low-slippage trade execution superior even to centralized exchanges, according to the announcement.

Is Uniswap V3 Cheaper to Use?

With gas fees near all-time highs, retail users have been squeezed out of Uniswap along with all other Ethereum protocols in recent months, with individual transaction fees north of $70.

The new updates were mostly focused on trade execution and capital efficiency, rather than reduced fees, as fees will ideally be reduced and stabilized by upcoming scaling solutions for the Ethereum network.

However, the Uniswap announcement states that V3 will come with “slightly” cheaper gas fees along with the other features. Transactions made on the L2 Optimism deployment, however, will be “significantly cheaper!”, according to the Uniswap team. Uniswap oracles will also be cheaper and easier to integrate.

While fees will remain high by historical levels for the near term, the new update is nevertheless a game-changer for the staking community.

Advancements such as these in Ethereum-based DeFi could well spell the beginning of the end for competing efforts being built on Binance Smart Chain and other networks.

Charles Schwab plans to offer spot crypto trading as US rules evolve under Trump