Will Ethereum Be The Next Facebook?

Authored by Kenneth Tan via Hackernoon.com,

2017 has been an amazing year for Ethereum.

Prices has hit an all time high of $800, and it is now the processing nearly double the number of transactions of bitcoin at a million a day.

As we enter 2018, I think Ethereum will be the next Facebook due to the massive amount of use cases that i am finding in major industries that benefit greatly from decentralization & transparency.

Ethereum is basically the app store for blockchain.

It allows creators to build and run apps without having to worry about the underlying “operating” system just like Apple.

Here are some of the areas to look out for:

Fundraising and ICOs

ICOs are the largest real world use case for ethereum. Traditionally, to fund your idea, you would have to borrow money from a bank, give up a lot of equity to a VC, or get an expensive loan from people lending sites. Basically, ICOs is a kickstarter on steroids.

As the founder of fundyourselfnow.com, I have worked with entrepreneurs all over the world on their product to get it ready for their ICOs. Many come from developing nations such as Indonesia (EagleCoin) and India (WandX) where it would have been extremely hard to raise significant funding for their idea due to lack of local investors.

ICOs are democratizing funding and spawning the next wave of innovation from young hungry entrepreneurs all over the world who will eventually contribute back to their local communities for a better future.

Payments & Lending

Currently, the crypto-currencies are quite hard to spend. Crypto credit card companies such as TenX, Monaco, Tokencard are stepping in to fill in the gap. All of them are built on the ethereum network. I personally hold a TenX Card and have used it to spend on daily goods and services using bitcoin.

Monaco in particular, has gotten official approval from VISA to issue cards to Singapore residents. Expect to see a huge increase in actual cryptocurrency spending & adoption 2018 as many of these crypto-card companies get official approval from VISA or MasterCard.

There has also been a rise of ethereum based lending solutions, such as SALT lending and ETHLend. The interest rates are expected to be fairer than getting from a bank, and people globally can gain access to financing even without a bank account.

I expect that 2018 will be the year where we will help lot of the unbanked get included in this new digital world.

Gambling

The gambling industry is ripe for disruption. 2017 started off with a very simple dice game, etheroll. You send ether to a smart contract and winnings are sent to you in a matter of minutes. Etheroll has over 260,000 ethers wagered so far (Around 2000m USD), which is incredible considering how simple and basic the game is.

Keep an eye out on Edgeless and Funfair in 2018 as one of them could potentially grow to become the largest online global casino. They have significant advantages over traditional real world casinos:

1. There is no capital controls


2. Anonymous, money doesn’t flow through the banking system


3. Trustless smart contract to process payouts and ensure fairness of game.

Gaming

The virtual nature of gaming lends itself incredibly well for the blockchain. Many successful gaming companies have started to include tokens in their games/product to fund their gaming ecosystem.

Here are some of the interesting ways tokens are used (not exhaustive):

Decentraland?—?Buy Land in their virtual world. Virtual worlds has been around since 2003 with Second Life and Ethereum might be the fuel that makes it finally takes off

Engin Coin?—?Used to create virtual goods that people that can on their marketplace. Instead of using “gold” in most games, expect games in 2018 to require you to use their own Ethereum game token to make & trade items.

CryptoKitties?—?Tokens represents a digital cat in the blockchain. Over 17m worth of cats were transacted since they launched early Dec , with the most expensive cat sold for more than 100k USD.

What more interesting is that with the use of Ethereum tokens for games, this could potentially mean that you could eventually trade items across games. For example, you can trade an Enjin Coin Item for land in decentraland through decentralized exchanges using the ENJ/MANA trade pair. Virtual worlds economies which are currently “silo-ed” could potentially change with the ability to “trade” across worlds.

Final Words

I see the money flowing into Ethereum and the overall cryptocurrency market as a positive. The technology underpinning Ethereum has a lot of real world usage that has yet to be unlocked and money is being funneled into innovative ethereum projects via ICOs at an incredible rate.

Mark Zuckerburg started facebook at the young age of 20 about 13 years ago, and it has completed changed the way we interact with our friends and family.

Vitalik, founder of Ethereum, started Ethereum also at the young age of 20 too about 3 years ago. I strongly believe that within the next 10 years, Ethereum will radically change the we interact with our world.

Long Island Iced Tea Soars 500% After Changing Its Name To Long Blockchain

Now that it is abundantly clear that for a stock to explode higher, all that is necessary - and sufficient - is a press release mentioning the company"s name and throwing in the word "blockchain" in the same sentence (see Riot Blockchain, LongFin Corp, Net Element, and Nova Lifestyle), other public microcaps have decided that if that"s all it takes, then by all means they will gladly take investors" money.

Before...

After...

And so here is today"s farce - Meet "Long Island Iced Tea Corp"... to be known in the future as "Long Blockchain Corp."

Long Island Iced Tea Corp. today announced that the parent company is shifting its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology. In connection with the shift in strategic direction, the Company has approved changing its name from “Long Island Iced Tea Corp.” to “Long Blockchain Corp.” and has reserved the web domain www.longblockchain.com. The Company intends to request Nasdaq to change its trading symbol in connection with the name change. The Company will continue to operate Long Island Brand Beverages, LLC as a wholly-owned subsidiary and maintain the focus of this business on the ready-to-drink segment of the beverage industry, specifically, premium, ‘better-for-you’ brands marketed at an affordable price.

 

In conjunction with the shift in business strategy, the Company has submitted a request to the Securities and Exchange Commission to withdraw its previously filed S-1 registration statement relating to a proposed underwritten public offering, which was filed on November 11, 2017.

 

Focus in Blockchain

 

Blockchain acts as a public, decentralized ledger. This ledger provides a single, unified source of data, creating a clearer audit trail and consistency across parties.  The Company believes that emerging blockchain technologies are creating a fundamental paradigm shift across the global marketplace, with far reaching applications across all industries from financial services (smart settlements) to consumer packaged goods (supply chain verification) to healthcare (electronic medical records).

 

The Company is already in the preliminary stages of evaluating specific opportunities involving blockchain technology. The discussions are only in the preliminary stages but indicate the areas of focus for the Company. These opportunities include potential partnerships, investments or acquisitions involving:

 

• A blockchain software developer building blockchain infrastructure for the financial services industry


• A London-based FCA regulated, institutional provider of FX services that is building multiple blockchain and digital crypto currency technology solutions for global financial markets


• A new smart contract platform for building decentralized applications that provides scalability beyond currently available options

 

However, the Company does not have an agreement with any of these entities for a transaction and there is no assurance that a definitive agreement with these, or any other entity, will be entered into or ultimately consummated.

 

Philip Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented,

 

“We view advances in blockchain technology as a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and have made the decision to pivot our business strategy in order to pursue opportunities in this evolving industry. We are committed to enhancing shareholder value and believe that our new focus is the best path towards this goal. We will, in the coming weeks and months, be taking a series of steps related to our efforts to assemble a world-class team of industry professionals to help us realize this vision. We are pursuing our new direction in a thoughtful and deliberate manner.”

And the result... the stock is up 500%...

Seriously!!

And we wonder who was buying in massive bulk a few weeks ago...

Paging The SEC...

Freeing Hamstrung Commodities Traders with Blockchain

The trading paradigms that dominate today’s investing landscape have undoubtedly served some of us well. For those who play by the rules, buying options or futures contracts is no strenuous exercise, and there is a huge market open at all hours of the day to serve willing participants. However, no matter how streamlined these practices are, or how fast online platforms become, the commodities trade will remain fragmented from bottom to top unless something changes.

In fact, the rules and major players within this modern industry are themselves keeping free market principles from proliferating. Bureaucratic protocols that purportedly keep us safe still do so, but oftentimes at the expense oftransparency and accessibility. The regulations that keep commodities markets behind the walls of large, centralized exchanges and brokers, not to mention within enforceable geographic borders, have admittedly helped with data security and verification standards. However, they’ve also created an opaque, closed ecosystem where it’s difficult to identify stakeholders, their motives, and their level of control.

Whether barrels of oil or bushels of wheat, it should not be hard to discern which traders (or institutions) are behind the price speculation and manipulations in the futures market for commodities. Individual traders who rely on these commodities markets to hedge their investments or improve their businesses lose in the long run when this status quo exists unchecked. Many people hope that the situation will change for the better soon thanks to the proliferation of blockchain and the emergence of companies employing it to improve the entire value chain for all stakeholders.  Nevertheless, the powerful technology will need to demolish multiple obstacles in the road before making a qualifiable difference.

There’s No Such Thing as Equal Footing

Even before coping with the unfortunate, unpredictable nature of the modern commodities market, traders must first pass muster with the enormous entities that control the industry. A Belgian farmer who wants to defray risk in his home market must connect his bank account with a Belgian broker, who allows him to hedge the value of his crop with domesticfutures and options contracts. However, once this farmer finds customers in the United States, he will also encounter a massive struggle to register with foreign financial entities, become verified, establish new accounts, and then pay hefty fees for the privilege of allocating his own capital.

Besides dealing with physical and digital borders, traders often find themselves without any choice in who they deal with. Giant exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Euronext control commodities and force potential traders to utilize them as a conduit to access the world’s financialized resource markets. Such centralization creates the high-fee structures that we must struggle with, making smaller trades less affordable and edging out many willing market participants. Apart from creating a barrier that enables the biggest institutional players to maintain their iron grip thanks to scale that reduces their overall costs, this two-tiered playing field hurts other value chain stakeholders that are not financial institutions.

Bring On Blockchain

Trade finance is an especially important aspect of the global commodities market, but oftentimes,small and medium-sized firms are underrepresented due to high financing costs and expansive reporting requirements.  One of the reasons these entities are pushed aside is that institutional participants typically like to focus on big deals which are more lucrative in a market that generates relatively high fees thanks to a high degree of opacity.

However, efforts like those undertaken by Singapore to establish itself as a fintech hub for global commodities trading is rapidly changing the stakes for the smaller players.       Singapore has invested heavily in attracting companies dealing with investments and trading to create a better model to help its citizens trade commodities without the massive hurdles that currently exist.

Blockchain is already showing curious financial market participants a glimpse of what the future might look like without these realities. Platforms likeChainTrade, one of the first companies to take on the entrenched interests in the modern commodities market, exhibit extraordinary functionality. By hosting a platform for commodities options and futures on a completely decentralized network, the costs of maintaining a complicated centralized system, namely security anddata reporting, are decimated. The virtual elimination of fees that could once be pinned on these costs is the least of such a system’s benefits.

More impressive is the opportunity to deploy smart contracts in conjunction with the blockchain ledger. Although commodities exchanges are designed for contract standardization, this level of consistency ignores a huge wellspring of opportunity to fold in other commoditized goods and services.  While most of the disruptive fintech models are focused on taking share away from centralized exchanges, ChainTrade has effectively built an architecture that could expand trading beyond the traditional mining and farming emphasis. Soon, traders will be able to easily create custom contracts with their preferred expiry dates, margins, prices and other factors, and find willing parties to sit on the other side of the table.

An Improved Form of Guarantees

One of the best aspects of these new models is how they handle counterparty risk.  Concepts like building risk-reduction features directly into smart contracts, requiring “Insurers” to back up both sides of the contract in case of default further contribute to the intelligence of this system. Smart contracts use the blockchain’s ledger to determine when these custom conditions have been fulfilled, and then autonomously distribute the correct funds to each recipient. In this case, funds take the form ofcryptocurrency to help streamline the process associated with the smart contract ecosystem.

While smart contract functionality also reduces overhead and fees for participants, it has the secondary bonus of eliminating borders for the market. Cryptocurrencies are now very universal, and can be purchased with any currency and traded no matter where the trader or their funds originate. Alongside an irrefutable record of trading activity, blockchain solutions like these eliminate fraud, improve transparency, increase accessibility and expand assurances for participants.

Safety In Decentralization

With trading environments built on blockchain that are both open and freely accessible, yet simultaneously protective of individuals, smaller traders and hedgers typically overlooked by the existing paradigm have something to look forward to. The lucrative stranglehold that institutions keep on the commodities market serve the interests of the few, and not the many, but blockchain is the people’s new champion.

Blockchain gets its power from a combination of limitless accessibility alongside the consensus of those who choose to participate. Traders are now opting for blockchain-based solutions, and it is becoming increasingly clear that markets will be forced to address this choice in some way.

Ethereum Proposes "Guidelines" To Stop ICO-Related Fraud

It looks like Ethereum’s developers and entrepreneurs have finally recognized the perils of being associated with the massively fraudulent ICO market.

ICOs have exploded since the beginning of the year as companies equipped with little more than a white paper sketching out some grandiose (and often highly improbable) killer app that somehow incorporates a monetized token trading on a blockchain much like bitcoin. So far, these offerings have raised more than $3 billion this year, and many of them are built on top of Ethereum’s platform, which enables the creation of decentralized “smart contracts” that can carry out higher level functions beyond simple transfers of value.

Last year, the collapse of the DAO - a kind of crowdfunded project meant to provide early stage financing to blockchain startups - sent the price of ethereum spiraling lower. Apparently, Ethereum’s top people are afraid the collapse of the ICO market might be even more damaging, CoinDesk repors.

"Grotesque" might not be the word you"d think ethereum developers would ascribe to today"s ICO scene.

 

But that"s exactly how some of the platform"s ardent supporters described the current state of affairs. At Devcon3 in Cancun, Mexico, last week, developers were decidedly unenthusiastic when approached for thoughts about the new funding method, some going so far as to allege that many projects that use it to raise money are little more than "scams."

 

Even Fabian Vogelstellar, the developer behind the technology standard that helped make ethereum tokens so easy to launch, was keen to join the ranks of ICO critics, echoing remarks made by a colorful cast of commentators as diverse as MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito and the "Wolf of Wall Street" Jordan Belfort.

 

"The problem right now is that too many people outside of the blockchain space focus on tokens and ICOs; frankly speaking, it"s the least interesting part of ethereum." 

The tone of these remarks stands in stark contrast to the optimism about ICOs , which just earlier this year were being hailed as a groundbreaking tool for capable of revolutionizing how companies raise money.

Etherscan CEO and founder Matthew Tan went so far as to call ICOs ethereum"s "killer app," a statement that aligns with the more than 10,000 token projects launched to date – 13 of which have eclipsed $100 million in total market value, according to Etherscan data.

 

It"s an interesting take seeing how ICOs are typically touted as a means to circumvent traditional fundraising methods. But, du Rose"s sentiments hint at a crucial criticism: that many ICOs are simply executing incorrectly. 

The criticism comes as regulators in US, China and many other major markets for cryptocurrencies have taken steps to curb or regulate the markets. The SEC has been slowly clarifying its stance toward ICOs since this summer, when it first declared - in a finding about the DAO fiasco - that ICOs are securities that must be registered with the SEC and subject to US securities laws.

To their credit, Ethereum developers have suggested some helpful “guidelines” of their own.

Here’s Jack du Rose, co-founder of ethereum startup Colony:

Ethereum developers largely believe that, at the very least, the individuals or company behind an ICO should have a prototype to prove their idea could theoretically work in practice. For instance, ethereum-based casino game platform FunFair launched an ICO over the summer, but only after releasing several prototypes.

 

And FunFair founder and CEO Jez San Obe had strong words about issuers that do it differently.

 

"You should have a product before you ICO, you should know how to run a company, you shouldn"t have an anonymous team and you should release a prototype first," he told CoinDesk.

It’s something that, in conventional markets, should go without saying. But ICOs are anything but conventional. So Ethereum’s developers reminded investors and the companies doing the offering not to "risk other people"s money on something, when there’s a reasonable likelihood we"d be prosecuted."

Issuing  a token before the product is not only foolish from a regulatory standpoint, but also "incompetent and greedy."

Du Rose also insisted that ICOs be reserved for companies building a product that is decentralized, like the ICO being used to finance it.

"For a token to be interesting ... it should be a totally decentralized protocol, not just glitter on top of a centralized company with its own revenue models," du Rose said.

 

In this way – although probably curiously for some – Giveth founder Griff Green pointed to The DAO as an ICO success story. Though its code had a bug that led to millions of dollars in ether being stolen from users, it was at least decentralized, said Green, who was the community organizer of the project.

 

He thinks about The DAO in a more abstract way, though, saying that, in the future, people will be able to launch their own cryptocurrency to push against the power of the banks.

 

"The power of creating currency is unfathomable. Banks are in a really good spot today. They have a lot of money and a lot of power. They can create money out of nothing. Instead, with ICOs, you can give that power to every person," Green said.

While regulators, investors and - increasingly - the general public believe the ICO space is fraught with bad actors, some crypto investors see this as the beginning of a learning process. ICOs could still revolutionize corporate fundraising, they believe, the market just needs to work out the kinks first.

"What I"ve seen is kind of unsurprising," said DappHub software engineer Andy Milenius. "People"s first experience with an idea is allowed to be wrong."

As we"ve reported, two of the world"s largest ICOs have already hit the rocks this year.

And we imagine those won"t be the last...

Comparing Bitcoin, Ether, & Other Cryptos

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re probably aware that we’re in the middle of a cryptocurrency explosion. In one year, the value of all currencies increased a staggering 1,466% – and newer coins like Ethereum have even joined Bitcoin in gaining some mainstream acceptance.

And while people like Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan and famed value investor Howard Marks have been extremely critical of cryptocurrencies as of late, many other investors are continuing to ride the wave. As Visual Capitalist"s Jeff Desjardins has noted in the past, the possible effects of the blockchain cannot be understated, and it could even change the backbone of how financial markets work.

However, even with the excitement and action that comes with the space, a major problem still exists for the layman: it’s really challenging to decipher the differences between cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Ripple, and Dash.

For this reason, we worked with social trading network eToro to come up with an infographic that breaks down the major differences between these coins all in one place.

(click image for massive legible version)

A DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR COINS

Here are descriptions of the major cryptocurrencies, which make up 84% of the coin universe.

BITCOIN

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, and was released as open-source software in 2009. Using a new distributed ledger known as the blockchain, the Bitcoin protocol allows for users to make peer-to-peer transactions using digital currency while avoiding the “double spending” problem.

No central authority or server verifies transactions, and instead the legitimacy of a payment is determined by the decentralized network itself.

Bottom Line: Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency with the most liquidity and significant network effects. It also has brand name recognition around the world, with an eight-year track record.

LITECOIN

Litecoin was launched in 2011 as an early alternative to Bitcoin. Around this time, increasingly specialized and expensive hardware was needed to mine bitcoins, making it hard for regular people to get in on the action. Litecoin’s algorithm was an attempt to even the playing field so that anyone with a regular computer could take part in the network.

Bottom Line: Other altcoins have taken away some of Litecoin’s market share, but it still has an early mover advantage and some strong network effects.

RIPPLE

Ripple is considerably different from Bitcoin. That’s because Ripple is essentially a global settlement network for other currencies such as USD, Bitcoin, EUR, GBP, or any other units of value (i.e. frequent flier miles, commodities).

To make any such a settlement, however, a tiny fee must be paid in XRP (Ripple’s native tokens) – and these are what trade on cryptocurrency markets.

Bottom Line: Ripple runs on many of the same principles of Bitcoin, but for a different purpose: to serve as the middleman for all global FX transactions. If it can successfully capture that market, the potential is high.

ETHEREUM:

Ethereum is an open software platform based on blockchain technology that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications.

In the Ethereum blockchain, instead of mining for bitcoin, miners work to earn ether, a type of crypto token that fuels the network. Beyond a tradeable cryptocurrency, ether is also used by application developers to pay for transaction fees and services on the Ethereum network.

Bottom Line: Ethereum serves a different purpose than other cryptocurrencies, but it has quickly grown to displace all but Bitcoin in value. Some experts are so bullish on Ethereum that they even see it becoming the world’s top cryptocurrency in just a short span of time – but only time will tell.

ETHEREUM CLASSIC:

In 2016, the Ethereum community faced a difficult decision: The DAO, a venture capital firm built on top of the Ethereum platform, had $50 million in ether stolen from it through a security vulnerability.

The majority of the Ethereum community decided to help The DAO by “hard forking” the currency, and then changing the blockchain to return the stolen proceeds back to The DAO. The minority thought this idea violated the key foundation of immutability that the blockchain was designed around, and kept the original Ethereum blockchain the way it was. Hence, the “Classic” label.

Bottom Line: As time goes on, Ethereum Classic has been carving out a separate identity from its bigger sibling. With similar capabilities and a different set of principles, Ethereum Classic could still have upside.

DASH:

Dash is an attempt to improve on Bitcoin in two main areas: speed of transactions, and anonymity. To do this, it has a two-tier architecture with miners and also “masternodes” that help the network perform advanced functions such as near-instant transactions and coin-mixing to provide additional privacy.

Bottom Line: The innovations behind Dash are interesting, and could help to make the coin more consumer-friendly than other alternatives.

BONUS: BITCOIN CASH

Although not included in the graphic, we also wanted to add a quick word on Bitcoin Cash. This new currency “hard forked” from Bitcoin about a month ago, as a result of miner disagreements about the future of Bitcoin. Here’s a detailed summary of the announcement.

Will Estonia Be The First Country To Issue Its Own Digital Currency?

Nearly three years after Estonia introduced its “e-residency” program, becoming the first country on Earth to allow foreigners to become “digital citizens,” the tiny Baltic republic is considering another proposal that would further cement its reputation as a digital pioneer: Becoming the first country to launch its own Initial Coin Offering.

In a Medium post published Tuesday, Kaspar Korjus, managing director of Estonia’s e-residency program, explained how such a virtual token – which he has tentatively named Estcoin – would function as a new type of investment allowing investors a “pure play” investment in its development. In this case, the money raised from the IPO would be administered by a public-private trust, and used to improve the country’s already formidable digital infrastructure.

Depending on how quickly the country follows through with this proposal (assuming they do pursue it) Estonia would become the first country to publicly launch a digital currency. The Chinese are developing a prototype called “ChinaCoin,” or “DigitalRMB,” but central-bank authorities say it could be another 10 years before it’s finished and launched.

As Korjus explains, Estonia would have “a clear advantage” in launching a digital token because of its “advanced digital infrastructure” and its e-residency program.

“No other country has come close to developing both the technology and the legal frameworks that would enable them to introduce and securely manage tradable crypto assets globally.”

Korjus said the idea was workshopped with input from Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, Korjus says, envisions the estcoin as a new way to directly invest in a country’s future, rather than buying stocks, bonds or businesses.

“Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has a keen interest in Estonia"s development as a digital nation and has provided valuable feedback for the estcoin proposal.

He believes estcoins could be used to incentivise investors to support the success of a country in a way that is not currently possible through existing means of raising international finance.

‘An ICO within the e-Residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together,’ says Buterin.”

The coins would give investors “a bigger stake in the future of our country,” Korjust said, something that he hopes would help Estonia crowdsource ideas to improve its digital infrastructure.

“We already know that many people become e-residents simply because they are fans of our country, our technology and our ideas, and being an e-resident enables them to show their support.

A government-supported ICO would give more people a bigger stake in the future of our country and provide not just investment, but also more expertise and ideas to help us grow exponentially.”

Aside from being purely an investment, the coins, if issued on top of a blockchain, could be used in smart contracts, or otherwise as a transfer of value. Meanwhile, the money raised in the offering would be managed by a public-private partnership tasked with helping to build a “new digital nation.”

“The funds raised through Estcoins could be managed through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) and only used as described in the agreement to actually help build the new digital nation. This would enable Estonia to invest in new technologies and innovations for the public sector, from smart contracts to Artificial Intelligence, as well as make it technically scalable to benefit more people around the world. Estonia would then serve a model for how societies of the future can be served in the digital era.

In addition, a large proportion of the funds could be used as a community-run VC fund on behalf of investors. The money could then be used to support Estonian companies, including those established by other e-residents.”

Right now, Estcoin is still just an idea. The next step would be fleshing out the project in greater detail with a White Paper, which means the ICO, if it happens, could still be a few months away. But it’s difficult to imagine an argument for not pursuing it. Even if the coins tank on the secondary market, Estonia will be left with a giant pile of crypto-capital to spend. ICOs have already raised $1.3 billion since the beginning of the year, and analysts at Pitchbook believe that the total for 2017 will be somewhere around $1.7 billion. Earlier this month, a company called Protocol Labs raised nearly $250 million in an exclusive “presale” followed by a public ICO for its Filecoin project – all without a viable product.

Surely, an ICO with a country behind it could make an equally attractive pitch.
 

Ethereum Explodes Above $30, Soars 35% In Past 24 Hours

While much of the media and public attention has been understandably focused on Bitcoin in recent months, a far more dramatic move has taken place in Bitcoin"s less popular peer, Ethereum. To be sure, one month ago, when we noticed the first tangible move higher in ETH since last summer"s dramatic plunge following a highly public hacking scandal which involved a "forking" in the blockchain, we mused if China"s furious momentum chasers were turning their attention from bitcoin to ethereum.

Did China shift from BTC to ETH

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 14, 2017

While the jury is still out on whether Chinese traders have shifted their attention to the less popular digital currency, this morning Ethereum surpassed all-time highs and was trading above $30. As of publication time, the blockchain-based unit had soared by over a third in just the past 24 hours according to Coinbase and CoinGecko ...

And had more than tripled since the start of the year.

The recent surge in Ethereum began on February 27, when as we reported the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance was launched, a project focussing on Blockchain propagation and innovation for international business which includes such members as JPM, Intel and Microsoft.

Curiously, another big move took place after the rejection of the Bitcoin ETF by the SEC late on Friday, when various "altcoins" experienced a slight drop followed by a sweeping comeback, as some speculated that public attention could now shift to various Bitcoin competitors.

That said, some have expressed skepticism if the current rally can persist, most notably leading Ethereum developer Vlad Zamfir, who last week wrote that Ethereum “euphoria” could soon end due to the prospect of another hard fork. “I am not feeling any euphoria anymore. I am mostly filled with concern about how everything could go horribly wrong,” he warned.

"I say it because I want you to understand where I’m coming from when I react to feeling euphoria in the Ethereum community. I felt euphoria for about the first eight to 12 months of becoming involved in Ethereum— I am not feeling any euphoria anymore. I am mostly filled with concern about how everything could go horribly wrong, with feelings of being overwhelmed, with being unable to keep up with everything that I feel requires my attention."

Zamfir wrote in his blog post that Blockchains are not toys, they are neither get rich quick schemes nor a shiny tool for automating business processes. "They are powerful technology that have the potential to do unspeakable harm. But they can also provide the basis for solutions to serious global problems," he pointed out. He claimed that he is not rubbishing Ethereum because it is not an exciting technology or he doesn"t care about all the work the community is doing. He claims he is very optimistic about the future of the platform but troubled by the no room for opposition. Zamfir explained further:

"I didn’t make that tweet because Ethereum isn’t safe or scalable, really, I did it because I find the current level of euphoria quite offensive. Maybe it isn’t my place to keep euphoria in check. Maybe it is. I don’t know. But I will probably continue to express myself by turning my feelings into radical, unnuanced tweets nonetheless."

Cited by CoinTelegraph, the consultant then said that Ethereum is not safe and he cannot guarantee there won"t be a 51% attack on the network unless there is a hard fork to minimize the damage. Likewise, on smart contracts, he has the same opinion. He did, however, concede that a lot of smart people in the Ethereum community are working hard to make Ethereum safe and secure with smart contract formal verification efforts and with proof-of-stake consensus protocol research.

"I think that we will continue to make steady and impressive progress on these safety problems," Zamfir acknowledged.

He is also optimistic Ethereum will get better:"Granted that all Blockchains suck. Is Ethereum at least more safe or scalable than other Blockchains? Maybe. But that is a nuanced discussion that won’t fit in this margin."

Since his post, Ethereum has nearly doubled in value.