Will Ethereum be replaced
There is an essential difference between Ethereum and bitcoin. What is the difference? Bitcoin defines a set of currency system, while Ethereum focuses on building a main chain (which can be understood as a road) to allow a large number of blockchain applications to run on this road
from this point of view, Ethereum's application scenarios are more extensive, which is why we say that Ethereum marks a simple monetary system in the era of blockchain
1.0, and a transformation to other instries and application scenarios in the era of blockchain 2.0
however, there is no perfect thing in the world. Although Ethereum has expanded the application scope of blockchain in all walks of life and improved the speed of transaction processing, it also has some disputes and doubts
first, the solution to the lack of scalability of Ethereum: slicing technology and lightning network
the bottom design of Ethereum, the biggest problem is that Ethereum has only one chain and no side chain, which means that all programs have to run on this chain equally, consuming resources and causing system congestion. Just like last year's very popular Ethereum game "encryption cat", when this game was very popular, it once caused Ethereum network paralysis
to improve the processing capacity, Ethereum proposes two ways: shard and lightning network. Let's introce these two technologies respectively
(1) fragmentation technology
vitalik buterin, founder of Ethereum, believes that the reason why mainstream blockchain networks such as bitcoin process transactions very slowly is that every miner has to process every transaction in the whole network, which is actually very inefficient. The idea of fragmentation technology is: a transaction does not need to be processed by all nodes in the whole network, as long as some nodes (miners) in the network are allowed to process it. Therefore, Ethereum network is divided into many pieces. At the same time, each piece can handle different transactions. In this way, the network performance will be greatly improved
however, the slicing technology is also controversial. As we all know, the important idea of blockchain technology is decentralization. Only when the whole network witnesses (processes) the same transaction can it have the highest authority. The Ethereum slicing technology is similar to the group witness, not all nodes witness together. In this way, it will lose the absolute "decentralization" attribute, and can only achieve the purpose of high performance by sacrificing certain characteristics of decentralization
(2) lightning network
lightning network uses the way of transaction under the chain. What does that mean? It means: when the participants of lightning network transfer money to each other, they do not need to confirm the transaction through the main chain of Ethereum, but create a payment channel between the participants and complete it under the chain
however, lightning network is not separated from the main chain. Before establishing a payment channel, you need to use the assets on the main chain as collateral to generate a balance proof, which indicates that you can transfer the corresponding balance. In the case that both parties of the transaction hold the balance certificate, both parties can make unlimited number of transfers under the chain through the payment channel
only when the off chain transaction is completed and the assets need to be transferred back to the chain, the balance change information of the main chain account will be registered on the Ethereum main chain, and no matter how many transactions occur ring this period, there will be no record on the main chain
another real benefit of lightning network is that it can save the cost of miners for you. At present, when we trade on the main chain of Ethereum, we need to consume gas and pay for miners. Once we move the transaction to the lower chain, we can save this part of the cost
Of course, lightning network is not perfect. When using the lightning network, the assets on the main chain should be used as collateral; And this part of assets as collateral can not be used before the user completes the transaction under the chain. This also determines that lightning trading is only suitable for small transactionsthe above is the problem of insufficient scalability of Ethereum, as well as the two main solutions: fragmentation technology and lightning network
Second, there are loopholes in Ethereum's smart contract and the infamous Dao event
Ethereum's smart contract is very powerful, but there are loopholes in any code. The biggest controversy of Ethereum's smart contract lies in the so-called loopholes, that is, security issues. According to relevant research, 34200 (about 3%) of the nearly 1 million smart contracts based on Ethereum contain security vulnerabilities, which will allow hackers to steal eth, freeze assets or delete contracts, such as the infamous Dao incident
(1) what does Dao meanbefore introcing the Dao event, let's first introce what Dao is. Dao is the abbreviation of decentralized
autonomous organization, which can be understood as decentralized autonomous organization. From the perspective of Ethereum, Dao is a kind of contract or a combination of contracts on the blockchain, which is used to replace the government's review and complex intermediate proceres, so as to achieve an efficient and decentralized trust system. Therefore, Dao is not a specific organization, that is to say, there can be many Dao, all kinds of Dao
(2) the infamous Dao event
however, when we talk about Dao now, we basically refer to the Dao event, that is, the infamous hacker attack event we just mentioned. As we know, the English word "the" refers to "the Dao event". The Dao event
refers to "the Dao event", because we just said that Dao is not a specific organization, there can be many Dao, all kinds of Dao
in 2016, slock.it, a German company focusing on "smart locks", launched the Dao project on Ethereum in order to realize decentralized physical exchange (such as apartments and ships). Since April 30, 2016, the financing window has been open for 28 days
unexpectedly, this Dao project is very popular. It raised more than US $100 million in just half a month. By the end of the whole financing period, it raised a total of US $150 million. Therefore, it has become the largest crowdfunding project in history. However, it didn't last long. In June, hackers took advantage of the loopholes in the smart contract to successfully transfer more than 3.6 million Ethernet coins and put them into a Dao sub organization, which has the same structure as the Dao. At that time, the price of Ethernet currency fell directly from more than $20 to less than $13
this event shows that there are loopholes in smart contracts, and once the loopholes are exploited by hackers, the consequences will be very serious. This is why many people criticize Ethereum and say that its smart contract is not smart
to solve this problem, many foreign companies begin to provide code audit services in order to solve the vulnerability problem of smart contract. From a technical point of view, some teams are currently testing smart contracts. Most of these teams are led by professors from Harvard, Stanford and Yale, and some of them have obtained investment from leading institutions
in addition to the problems of insufficient expansibility and loopholes in smart contracts, the controversy over Ethereum lies in the POS consensus mechanism it pursues, that is, the proof of equity mechanism. Under the proof of equity mechanism, if anyone holds more money and holds it for a longer time, he will get more "rights" (interests) and have the opportunity to get bookkeeping power, Bookkeeping can also be rewarded. In this way, it is easy to create the oligarchic advantage of "the stronger the stronger"
Another problem is the chaos of ICO. ICO is a common way to raise funds for blockchain projects, which we can understand as pre-sale. The outbreak of ICO projects on Ethereum has caused illegal activities such as fund allocation and money fraud under the banner of ICO, which has caused security risks to social and financial stabilityMany people think that the reason why bitcoin is valuable is because it is "rare", and if bitcoin is no longer "rare", then it will not have value
this is a misunderstanding. Let's consider a question: what is the essence of all "currencies"
the answer is trust. The biggest reason for the value of the dollar is because of the credibility established for the dollar under the Bretton Woods Agreement, rather than the so-called equivalent exchange with gold (although others say so). The main reason why RMB is valuable is because of the trust system of RMB in China and neighboring countries, rather than the exchange with us dollar reserves (see offshore RMB). This can explain why the currencies of some countries (such as the ruble of Russia, as well as the Zimbabwean currency as you all know) have been greatly devalued, because the government and the current world situation have led to a trust system that does not support the existence of this currency. The so-called economic sanctions and currency speculation are very superficial and superficial reasons
the essence of money is trust
What about bitcoin
bitcoin has no centralized Trust Measurement institution. The value of bitcoin, namely its "credit system", comes from distrust of centralized units. Every country finds that seigniorage is too easy to collect, which leads to the increasingly poor trust between countries. Even the people of all countries do not trust the national currency
and trust, like quality, is conserved. Trust in centralized money decreases, while trust in decentralized money increases naturally
this is the essential reason why the value of bitcoin continues to rise. Therefore, for digital currencies such as bitcoin, there are only two outcomes. Either countries want to understand that they will no longer issue excess currencies, issue additional currencies in a scientific and reasonable way, unify stable exchange rates, and maintain the credit system of centralized currencies, then the value of bitcoin will be infinitely close to zero. Or countries will continue to drink water to quench their thirst, and more frantically use the method of issuing excess currency to collect seigniorage from everyone, then the trust in the centralized currency will be lower and lower, and the total value of bitcoin, a decentralized currency, will be infinitely close to the gross labor value of all the units that do not trust the government and other governments, but need international trade
either the price is crazy or it's worthless
after understanding these, we can answer this question. Will bitcoin be replaced by other digital currencies
swindlers like * * and even the old Wang next door can come and yell, "I spent 10 minutes to change bitcoin's core and create a new digital currency called SBC. Come and join my ICO and pay me seigniorage ~". So, if this happens, will you immediately choose to use Lao Wang's SBC next door
the answer is that some speculators will participate, but the market will not. The reason is very simple, the new cryptocurrency has not been recognized by the market, the application has not been proced, this kind of currency has no way to exchange for means of proction. Then this kind of currency is not money, but a virtual commodity for speculation. In other words, even if old Wang ICO next door has an SBC, no one will choose this kind of currency except those speculators who have no brains
in the current market, there are many other digital currencies, such as Ethereum, EOS, XRP, and so on, which may have technological advantages in some aspects (in fact, BTC has been evolving, and it will also learn from the advanced technologies of other digital currencies that have been successfully proved by the market. LTC and other currencies can be said to be the experimental currencies of BTC's advanced technologies.), There may be more application scenarios than BTC in the future, but they are not likely to challenge the status of BTC. BTC will always be the first consensus in the currency circle, which is the belief of many people. BTC will exist for a long time as the gold in the currency market, not mainly for the circulation of digital currency

after Ethereum bifurcates into etheric fog, the two will exist and develop together< br />
however, bitcoin is still the most popular decentralized virtual currency so far, but no one can guarantee that it will always be in this position. Now there are some alternative currencies inspired by bitcoin. However, a more reasonable assumption is that the new currency needs significant improvements to replace bitcoin in the established market. Of course, these are still unpredictable. Without changing the basic composition of the protocol, bitcoin may also adopt some measures to improve the competitive currency.
I think the first reason why Ethereum has been setting new records is that it has a lot of capital
the second reason is that many ordinary people have paid attention to virtual currency . These ordinary people have strong purchasing power, and they may have been speculators in stocks or funds before. When they find that the virtual currency is rising well, they will bring a lot of money into the market. The admission of these ordinary people will increase more capital admission, because in the view of capital, these ordinary people are a crop of leeks
the third reason is e to the soaring price of bitcoin, bitcoin is now rising very rapidly, from $20000 a bitcoin in 2020 to $60000 a bitcoin now. It's terrible. For a lot of capital, they can't speculate on bitcoin. Because bitcoin's plate is too big, they have to go back and speculate on Ethereum
first, a large amount of capital has entered the market
at present, the global economy is not very good, there are not many things that can be invested, and the global currencies are devaluing and inflating for a lot of capital, their money will depreciate one day if they hold it in their hands. They need to invest their money. At this time, they find that the virtual currency can keep the value and will not inflate. At this time, there will be a lot of capital, with a lot of money to buy Ethereum. When a lot of people go to buy Ethereum, it is normal for Ethereum prices to rise

