In case you missed it, the world’s second largest digital asset celebrated its 6th birthday on the 30th of July. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s in store in the future! Let’s first take a look at where it all began.
Ethereum’s founder Vitalik explained the trajectory that led him to create the world’s second largest digital asset:
“I happily played World of Warcraft during 2007-2010, but one day Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock’s Siphon Life spell. I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring. I soon decided to quit.”
Vitalik Buterin, CypherHunter
A young boy was irritated at the inability of a gaming company to change an in-game item. Thus, the seed for Ethereum was planted.
In 2011, Buterin discovered Bitcoin.
He initially dismissed the ideology, but later started writing for a blog called the Bitcoin Weekly for $1.5 an hour. As he wrote, he grew more interested in cryptocurrency.
He was further motivated to adjust the balance of power between the “big guy” and the “little guy” with Bitcoin. In 2013, he dropped out of university to explore crypto projects around the world. Vitalike soon realised that they were “all too concerned about specific applications and not being sufficiently general”.
Ethereum’s development was funded via an initial coin offering in July 2014. Participants bought the first ETH tokens with Bitcoin. The ICO raised 3,700 BTC in its first 12 hours, raising $18 million in total.
Ethereum Foundation’s last proof-of-concept prototype, which was codenamed “Frontier”, went live on 30 July 2015.
Today, the cryptoverse eagerly awaits ETH2
ETH2 is expected to go live in August in the London hard fork. This fork is the first stage in an overarching upgrade in the Ethereum network. The full upgrade, will be carried out in a series of five updates called Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs).
It will see Ethereum’s current proof-of-work protocol replaced with a proof-of-stake protocol. PoW is based on mining verification, where machines use processing power to derive income.
On the other hand PoS is based on users staking their cryptocurrency, thereby deriving income for being a good validator. It is anticipated that PoS will help Ethereum unlock its full potential and make it more scalable, secure and sustainable.
ETH2 is hard fork because the upgrade is not backward-compatible. If a node does not update its blockchain, it can no longer be a part of the network. EIP-1559 will also introduce a new fee structure for Ethereum’s transactions fees. The change will potentially create a deflationary effect on ETH and boost its value due to its lower supply.
All in all, ETH2 is definitely a giant leap forward towards its vision of mainstream adoption and growing powerful enough to help all of humanity reach a digital future on a global scale. We can’t wait for this new era of DeFi to begin.
An important note from ZebPay, while you’re here.
Ethereum’s London Fork is scheduled to happen on block 12,965,000, currently estimated at August 5th, 2021.
Though the fork is anticipated to be non-contentious, there is the possibility of the network becoming unstable as the fork is activated. We will be upgrading its infrastructure to support this fork. For safety reasons, withdrawals and deposits of ETH and ERC20 tokens will be suspended starting 12 PM IST on Thursday, August 5th.
