Ethereum is the second most popular crypto asset on all rankings on the Internet. It comes second after the industry leader – Bitcoin. The second most traded crypto pair throughout all crypto exchanges is ETH to USDT. In fact, this pair shows the current price for Ethereums in dollars. USDT is a stablecoin equal to the US dollar. As of mid-September 2022, the ETH price in dollars is $1,432.05.
Now that we have answered the question “What is ETH?”, let’s look at it from another angle. Ethereum is not only a crypto asset. It is also a network that allows dApps developers to build and deploy their decentralized products on top of the Ethereum blockchain. Lately, it has become somewhat challenging because of the Ethereum network overloading – too many dApps were deployed on Ethereum, causing the network to slow down and increasing fees. But the problem was solved just recently – the Ethereum blockchain switched to the Proof-of-Stake mechanism.
Benefits of Transition to Proof-of-Stake
The Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism is what the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are based on. The essence is using high-technological mining equipment and powerful computers that solve complex math tasks, the result of which coins are received (mined). This is a complicated process that requires expenses for buying such equipment, maintaining it, as well as spending enormous amounts of money for paying electricity costs. These all increased the transaction fees in the Ethereum network and reduced its throughput. In mid-September 2022, the Ethereum blockchain transitioned to Proof-of-Stake.
The Proof-of-Stake mechanism solves all the mentioned limitations:
- Staking does not require any equipment. You only buy coins and lock them in staking. In return, you receive rewards (interest).
- Staking is not energy-consuming.
- Staking is environmentally friendly.
- It reduces the ETH coins inflation.
- Much bigger throughput and much lower fees.
With the transition of the Ethereum blockchain to PoS, the project has all the chances to expand even more than before. Being an incredibly popular crypto asset, ETH can boost its rate in the future.
