Ethereum shows strength in Bitcoin-alternative race

The digital currency, Ethereum, whose rise this report has highlighted, is now worth more than digital currencies Ripple and Litecoin combined. On a market cap basis, at $447m Ethereum is now the second-largest digital currency behind Bitcoin at $6.5bn. The rally in Ethereum's price is said to have been influenced by a number of companies announcing their intention to incorporate the technology into their businesses. Ethereum is also benefiting from a much higher trading volume than other alternatives to Bitcoin, boasting almost 25% of the trading volume of Bitcoin itself.

Few trading instruments exist in the world that are as volatile as Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term, but it is still very rare to ever see anything rally as much Ethereum is now. The ETH/USD exchange rate climbed another 10% in the last twenty-four hours, bringing the price of Ether to $5.8 and its overall market capitalization to around $447 million.

Putting this into perspective in relation to the other leading cryptocurrencies, just two weeks ago the total ETH market cap reached $283 million, surpassing Ripple, and right now it is already worth more than Ripple ($273 million) and Litecoin ($153 million) combined. Ethereum is still far away from threatening bitcoin's leading position at $6.5 billion, but it certainly looks to be in a league of its own compared to the other altcoins.

Supporting the rise of Ether’s price are always large trading volumes - about $14.7 million in the last twenty-four hours. This is almost a quarter of bitcoin’s daily trading volume ($62.9 million ADV) and well above Ripple's $0.5 million at number three. Likely generating much of the interest in Ethereum are recent reports from leading companies that they are incorporating the technology into their businesses, such as energy giant RWE exploring how charging electric vehicles could be transformed via the protocol.

If you still don’t know Ethereum, it's a decentralized smart contracts platform which proponents see as much more than just a cryptocurrency system as per the original bitcoin idea of Satoshi Nakamoto Satoshi Nakamoto “Satoshi Nakamoto” is the alias of the mysterious person (or group of people) that are responsible for the creation and launch of Bitcoin back in 2009 and the authorship of the Bitcoin whitepaper, published in 2008. As such, Satoshi Nakamoto is also the entity who conceptualized and created the first-ever blockchain network. Nakamoto was the first to effectively solve the double-spending problem for digital currency using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. Nakamoto was active in the development of bi “Satoshi Nakamoto” is the alias of the mysterious person (or group of people) that are responsible for the creation and launch of Bitcoin back in 2009 and the authorship of the Bitcoin whitepaper, published in 2008. As such, Satoshi Nakamoto is also the entity who conceptualized and created the first-ever blockchain network. Nakamoto was the first to effectively solve the double-spending problem for digital currency using a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. Nakamoto was active in the development of bi Read this Term. It is instead referred to as a replacement to the internet or a “planetary scale computer” that can handle everything from secure communication and e-commerce, to digital governance, the internet of things and more. In our recent interview with the CEO of Gatecoin - the first exchange in the world to list Ether for trading - he explained the appeal of the concept and how Ethereum helped propel Gatecoin's volumes.