Using Ethereum’s “Turing complete” smart contract language, Solidity, developers are able to deploy a set of instructions to the blockchain that operate indefinitely with a high degree of finality and fraud-resistance. With the first block being mined in July 2015, Ethereum has since become the largest smart contract platform of its kind, and the second largest blockchain of all time as measured by market capitalization.Ethereum was first conceived in 2013 by its founder, Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum whitepaper described the blockchain as an evolution of Bitcoin’s, enabling not only payments but “smart contracts” too.The rapid price increase of Ethereum has not only attracted investors but developers too. Ethereum has tens of thousands of developers in its open source community, each contributing to the many layers of the “Ethereum stack”. This includes code contributions to the core Ethereum clients, second layer scaling tech and the “decentralized applications” (dApps) that are built on top of the platform. The appeal of Ethereum to developers is unique in that it was the first platform to allow anyone in the world to write and deploy code that would run without the risk of censorship. The community of developers which have formed around these core principles have led to the creation of technologies that could not have existed without the inception of Ethereum, many of which were never predicted. Some of the major use-cases of Ethereum so far have been:Decentralized
Finance (DeFi) – lending, borrowing and countless derivatives are being deployed through Ethereum smart contracts, where the Ethereum blockchain acts as a trustless intermediary– lending, borrowing and countless derivatives are being deployed through Ethereum smart contracts, where the Ethereum blockchain acts as a trustless intermediary Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) – crowdfunding through the sale of tokens– crowdfunding through the sale of tokens Crypto-collectibles – non-fungible tokens (NFTs) whose scarcity is enforced by the blockchain– non-fungible tokens (NFTs) whose scarcity is enforced by the blockchain Stablecoins – fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies (collateralized or fiat-backed) with their stability enforced by smart contractsThese are just a handful of the applications conceived for Ethereum; the most powerful use cases of this blockchain are yet to be imagined. Ethereum’s challenge now is in garnering of mainstream appeal, something which has so far eluded the platform due to the friction between the traditional and crypto spheres.Read more about the Ethereum blockchain, mining and its surrounding ecosystem in our guide to What Is Ethereum?Ethereum Price HistoryThe price of Ethereum has fluctuated wildly in its short history. At its launch in July 2015, the price of an Ethereum token (Ether) was just $0.43. In the years following, the price of Ethereum would see a high of $1,422.47 in January 2018 before dropping by over 80% 9 months later. Full historical data is available here.This dramatic volatility attracted global attention with the mainstream media running near-daily reports on the price of Ether.
The publicity generated has been a major boon for the ecosystem, attracting thousands of new developers and business ventures alike. In 2018 the amount raised through Ethereum-enabled ICOs reached almost $8bn, increasing from just $90m in 2016.While the price of Ethereum has faced extreme volatility over the years, it is this volatility which has driven interest. After every boom and bust cycle, Ethereum comes out the other side with a fundamentally stronger platform and a broader developer community backing it. These fundamental improvements would suggest a positive long-term outlook on the price of Ethereum.Buy EthereumArmed with the knowledge of Ethereum’s price history, future predictions and the associated risks to investing in this cryptocurrency, you may now be considering a purchase. Buying Ethereum has evolved from a niche and slightly cumbersome process to one which has been polished into simplicity. Ethereum can now be bought through debit/credit card, epayment platforms, bank transfer, cash or even Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.There are myriad ways to buy the cryptocurrency Ethereum and there is no single correct way of doing so. For a detailed guide to not only the acquisition of Ethereum but the storage and securing of it as well, see our Buy Ethereum guide.About EthereumPrice.orgEthereumPrice.org launched in March 2016 to allow users to easily track the price of Ethereum both historically and in real-time. The platform has since evolved to include several fiat currencies (EUR, GBP, JPY and others) as well as price data for a number of Ethereum ERC20 tokens and other blockchain currencies. More recently, prediction data from Augur was also added to provide insight into the future price expectations of the Ether market.Price data is calculated using a volume weighted average formula. This formula takes real-time data from numerous Ethereum exchanges and weights the price based on each market’s 24 hour trading volume. A market with a relatively high trading volume will have its price reflected more visibly in the overall average.For more details on the weighted average calculation, see our data and methodology.
