Ethereum on a Roll As Cryptocurrency Takes Steps Towards a Greener Future
By Crypto Global News
Cryptocurrency Ethereum is rallying following an upgrade to the digital currency’s network that will make it more environmentally friendly.
At the time of publishing, one Ether (the token of the Ethereum network) was worth $4,252.
Less than a month ago one Ether was worth a staggering 42 per cent less at $2,434.
Ethereum is starting to track back to its previous highs following a “hard fork” in London
If you bought $1000 of Ether on July 20 – a little over 21 days ago – you’d have already made more than half your money back by today.
The cryptocurrency hit its highest ever price in early May this year, where it levelled off just one dollar shy of the $AUD 5000 mark.
Simon Peters, market analyst and cryptocurrency expert at eToro, said Ethereum was making inroads in being “greener”, given a major criticism of Bitcoin is the amount of electricity used to mine coins.
A man uses the Ethereum ATM in Hong Kong
“Ethereum’s London hard fork finally took place on Thursday, with the cryptoasset’s creator Vitalik Buterin hailing the moment as a step toward making it more energy efficient,” Mr Peters said.
“The hard fork is the single biggest upgrade to the Ethereum network since 2015 and has significant implications for the cost of fees on the blockchain – so-called ‘gas’ fees.
“But according to the founder Buterin, it has implications for the energy efficiency of ETH. Speaking to Bloomberg News in Singapore, Buterin said EIP-1559 could reduce emissions caused by the network by 99 per cent.”
Founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin
Any step a cryptocurrency takes towards being more environmentally friendly is likely to drive up its price.
“Cryptoassets such as ETH and bitcoin have come in for criticism in recent times for high energy usage,” Mr Peters said.
“Tesla chief executive Elon Musk triggered a major selloff in May with comments on the high emissions of the bitcoin mining process.”
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