Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency,
is up 71.6 percent from the year’s low of $27,734 on January 4.
Ether, the coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain network,
rose 7.86 percent to $3,284.18 on Friday, adding $243.55 to its previous close.
Currently trailing Bitcoin by thousands of dollars, the
Ethereum platform’s potential applications, lower environmental impact, and
technical upgrades are likely to help the Ether token continue to outperform
Bitcoin, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead said recently.
“You’ll see a transition of people who want to store wealth,
doing it in (ether) rather than just Bitcoin,” he added.
The most significant change to the Ethereum blockchain since
2015 — the London Hard Fork upgrade — that went into effect Thursday shows the
network is well-poised to make an even bigger upgrade to reduce its energy use
by 99 percent, according to its inventor Vitalik Buterin.
Ethereum and better-known-rival Bitcoin both operate using a
proof-of-work system that requires a global network of computers running around
the clock. Software developers at Ethereum have been working for years to
transition the blockchain to what’s known as a proof-of-stake system – which
uses a totally different approach to secure the network that also eliminates
the carbon emissions issue.
© Reuters
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