In the year 2009, Bitcoin took the world by storm as the very first cryptocurrency built on blockchain technology. It was only a matter of five years later that Ethereumhit the ground running with vastly greater potential because it isn’t limited to crypto. While that is probably what the majority of people know about Ethereum, the implications for use in literally every aspect of our livesare still being found. So then, starting with Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, what are some of the key uses?
Ether – Investment Vehicle and Currency
There are many who say that Ethereum is the most secure crypto to date. Even though cryptocurrency as a whole is far superior to fiat in terms of security, Ether takes the lead in this regard. Also, it is quickly growing in value. Although, like any other currency, ETH will have its ups and downs in value on the Ethereum Prices index, its general movement is upward. You can track that movement on OKX. So then, as a currency continually gaining in value over time, ETH makes a good investment vehicle as well as a currency.
Smart Contracts
Consider the implications of a self-executing contract in real estate. Smart contracts are an essential part of the Ethereum network. Key features of a smart contract mean that they are:
- Decentralized
- Autonomous
- Transparent
- Trustless
- Unmodifiable and irreversible once deployed
All the information from the initial contract to its fulfilment is held in a network of hundreds of thousands of computers around the globe. There is no disputing a contract once all the terms and conditions are met and it is deployed. That piece of real estate has a globally proven ownership and the best part yet is that none of the grunt work will be done by agents. It is written in code that executes the contract once written, and that’s all there is!
Indisputable Titles and Deeds
This brings us to the deployment stage of a smart contract written in Ethereum. Once all those conditions are met, as in the real estate example above, clear title and deeds are issued to the property’s owner and records are kept in the County Recorder’s Office. As the system works now, the process of substantiating ownership can be a harrowing experience.
Court documents and records will need to be accessed, and although they are now often stored in the Cloud, it takes a ton of manpower hours to track down any element that could give rise to dispute. This cannot happen in blockchain technology because it’s a matter of opening those digital records held on potentially millions of computers with a public key. The information is instantly there to be seen and verified.
Countless Other Protections
Because of those digital ledger entries logged on a vast network of global computers, copyright infringement will be next to impossible. There is a private key assigned to each and every work of art, patented medicine, Billboard song, and so forth. The entire system meant to prove ownership and offer protection will totally evolve.
More and more uses are being discovered every day and this is why Ethereum is forecast to be the blockchain technology of the future.