{"id":4040,"date":"2016-04-04T14:43:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T18:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=4040"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:53:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:53:02","slug":"bitcoin-challenged-by-alt-currency-newcomer-ethereum-not-a-new-periodic-element-but-competitive-new-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/bitcoin-challenged-by-alt-currency-newcomer-ethereum-not-a-new-periodic-element-but-competitive-new-software\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Challenged by Alt Currency Newcomer: Ethereum, Not a New Periodic Element, but Competitive New Software"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethereum, the newest digital currency to garner substantial attention from consumers and corporations alike, is hailed by many as Bitcoin\u2019s newest rival.\u00a0 Recent weeks has seen ethereum gain users, value and attention in a way that is causing many analysts to forecast a lasting presence in the world of digital currency.
\nInvented by a Russian student, Ethereum is currently run by Blockchain, the same software which powers Bitcoin.\u00a0 But as bitcoin has faced trouble from some internal, and many security and legal issues, Ethereum has emerged to benefit from bitcoin\u2019s troubles.\u00a0 It is the first substantial alternative to bitcoin in several years, and has many in the digital currency world taking notice.\u00a0 Described by the New York Times as \u201ca new virtual gold rush<\/a><\/span>,\u201d ethereum has experienced a rise in value of around 1000% — in the past 90 days alone. \u00a0In addition, the value of Ethereum\u2019s individual currency units has varied, ranging from one to twelve dollars<\/a><\/span> per unit.\u00a0 Given the breadth and availability of the software, ether currency as a whole represented over one billion dollars, compared with bitcoin\u2019s six billion.
\nDescribed by some as a smarter currency than bitcoin, ethereum boasts a more complex structure and some new features that are attracting new users.\u00a0 Ethereum software can provide individual currency, called \u201cether,\u201d serve as a software structure for online markets, and enable new transactions called \u201csmart contracts.\u201d\u00a0 Proponents of the new currency and software system maintain consumers can do a whole host of tasks on ethereum which show its flexibility and power.\u00a0 Proponents report \u201cthere are already dozens of functioning applications built on Ethereum, enabling new ways to manage and pay for electricity, sports bets and even Ponzi schemes<\/a><\/span>.\u201d
\nSmart Contracts<\/strong>
\nOne of the main ways Ethereum has gained in value is its smart contract feature.\u00a0 Smart contracts enable programmers to directly enter contract and program agreements into the blockchain.\u00a0 So, holders of the Ethereum can form their own, self-enforcing contracts that allocate money according to agreed-upon rules.\u00a0 People wanting to effect a transaction through ethereum would work together to come up with terms and an agreement, which they would program directly into the underlying blockchain. \u00a0This smart contract feature is available on any of the applications formed to run on ethereum, enabling users to obtain and use Ethereum to form business contracts, simple sales, and even enforce online betting agreements. \u00a0Ether, the currency of ethereum, can also be used to pay for \u201cthe network power required to process the bet.\u201d\u00a0 Hence, both parties can structure the entirety of their transaction, and exercise control over the functions used to effectuate the transaction.
\nFurthermore, Ethereum has garnered a surprising amount of attention from the business community, boosting its credibility.\u00a0 IBM announced it is considering alt. currency such as Ethereum to \u201cmanage real-world objects<\/a><\/span> in the Internet of Things.\u201d\u00a0 In addition, Microsoft has been working on several projects pairing Ethereum with its cloud, Azure, as a tool to do business across several industries.\u00a0 Further still, large banks such as JPMorgan are interested in Ethereum as a tool for moving and packaging money, engineering large, private blockchains using Ethereum.\u00a0 JPMorgan produced a software called Masala<\/a><\/span>, for the sole purpose of enabling some of its largest databases to communicate and trade with Ethereum blockchains.
\nStill, experts say Ethereum has a ways to go before it can effectively challenge bitcoin without suffering from some of the same issues that plagued bitcoin\u2019s rise and success.\u00a0 Ethereum is far from being established in the world of digital currency.\u00a0 Joseph Bonneau, with Stanford\u2019s computer science department, said Ethereum\u2019s \u201clongevity<\/a><\/span>\u201d depended on the development of markets around it, as bitcoin is still the biggest player in alt currency.\u00a0 Others have jumped at the chance to develop business using Ethereum.\u00a0 Joseph Lubin cofounded ConsenSys, a network of developers who construct applications around the popular alt currency.\u00a0 Lubin described his excitement for Ethereum when he learned its capacity to develop new markets and contracts, \u201cit delivered on some of bitcoin\u2019s failed promise[s].\u201d\u00a0 Lubin continues to develop applications around the new blockchain:<\/p>\n

\u201cEthereum present[s] the crystallization of how to deliver on the broad strokes vision that bitcoin presented.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethereum, the newest digital currency to garner substantial attention from consumers and corporations alike, is hailed by many as Bitcoin\u2019s newest rival.\u00a0 Recent weeks has seen ethereum gain users, value and attention in a way that is causing many analysts to forecast a lasting presence in the world of digital currency. Invented by a Russian …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7212,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions\/7212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}