Will Ethereum Be the Next High Value Coin in 2018?

With the steady rise in price of Bitcoin, it is hard not to keep an eye on Ethereum. Trading at $17,382.64 on December 11, according to Coindesk data, the Bitcoin surge could be good news to cryptocurrency enthusiasts. There are plenty other cryptocurrencies and tokens right now and going by the success of Bitcoin, investors and cryptocurrency stakeholders expect them to do well in coming months. And their expectations are not farfetched because all of these currencies are founded on the block chain technology.

One of these is Ethereum, which according to some sources, could be the next big thing after Bitcoin. Some sources predict an unprecedented surge in Ethereum price peaking atUS$4,000 in 2018. Considering that no one saw the Bitcoin surge coming, this could happen. Indeed, all things are possible in the cryptocurrency world.

There are many factors that will affect the value of Ethereum in 2018. First, some of the most interesting projects today are running on this infrastructure. While this is a good thing for Ethereum, there are key issues that could negatively impact its projected rise. For instance, raising money on the platform seems to clog it, slowing it down for hours. In extreme cases, the platform becomes unusable for hours. With the rising popularity of ICO projects, the EthereumBlockchain should not have issues handling such transactions. A case in point is the recent clog that was brought about by CryptoKitties, which were so popular they briefly broke the platform. Several other ICOs this year have slowed down the platform. The good thing is that Ethereum developers are always working to ensure the platform is scalable.

Smart contracts are Ethereum’s biggest selling point. The smart contracts, which greatly attract developers, could very well push the cryptocurrency towards the US$1000 mark. The only speck on the smart contracts is their auditing system. In the recent past, people have lost funds through Ethereum-related projects because of the auditing flaws. Experts believe that independent auditing could be the solution to this problem. With a number of recent projects focusing on the auditing issue, this could be a good sign for Ethereum.

While some of these issues might fail to propel the cryptocurrency to a possible four digit value in 2018, there are other key factors that could. One of these is the upcoming changes on the protocol, which could possibly translate to success in coming months. However, for this to work, the platform needs to ensure that other alternate coins do not outclass it. And several other altcoins are showing signs of outclassing Ethereum. For some reason, dozens of altcoins focusing on decentralization, smart contracts and ICOs do not suffer from Ethereum’s problems, including loss of user funds, even when their systems are down.

In a nutshell, Ethereum has lots of potential. For it to become the next most valuable currency, however, it needs to address most of its flaws, something that is expected to take time to accomplish. As such, hitting the four digit figures might not happen by next year. With so many positive things going on for Ethereum, its main challenge for now is to up its competition against Bitcoin, a fairly steep call.

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.

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