The popularity of Ethereum in Google searches has skyrocketed along with its price, and Ethereum is now less than 20% from its all-time high. According to Google Trends search data, interest in Ethereum has reached a record level, and the search volume for Ethereum on Google is already higher than that of the 17-year bull market.
So, what is the difference between Ethereum today and Ethereum in the past?
1. The Era of "Digital Petroleum" in Ethereum
Bitcoin is known as "digital gold". Bitcoin and gold have striking similarities. Decentralized consensus, scarcity, and production require a lot of resources. The high market value of Bitcoin today does not come from its use value, but its reserve and speculative value. Like gold, there is not much gold actually used in industry, but it supports a huge market value.
In the past, we realized the intrinsic value of Bitcoin as "digital gold", so in 2021, we will witness the era of Ethereum as "digital oil".
Compared with gold, oil is just needed. Gold has little to do with our lives, but our lives are inseparable from oil, which runs everything. Gasoline, gas, asphalt, and various raw materials all come from oil. It can be said that petroleum is the basic material on which our modern society depends.
In the blockchain world, countless DAPPs (decentralized applications) operate on the public chain of Ethereum. Building applications, issuing assets, and even every transfer we need consumes the "digital oil" of Ethereum.
Bitcoin will replace gold and Ethereum will be the conduit through our entire world.
2. IC0 exits, DeFi takes over
In the bull market of 2017, the value of Ethereum soared to more than 1,400 US dollars, thanks to the wave of IC0, Ethereum made it possible to issue tokens with one click, and financing can be done with a single white paper, pushing the entire market to a climax. The IC0 project has gone bankrupt, and IC0 has always been criticized by the market, and the spearhead is directed at Ethereum.
Three years later, DeFi applications were born in the Ethereum ecosystem. In 2020, we can see that DeFi has driven the market and become the main theme of the market, especially the rise of Uniswap. DEX has been used on a large scale for the first time, and has Against the strength of centralized exchanges, and all of this was conceived on Ethereum, not to mention that Ethereum is far more than Uniswap.
According to DeBank data, the total lock-up volume of DeFi on Ethereum has reached 30.5 billion US dollars, and DeFi has become the fastest growing ecosystem in the blockchain world, with a complete ecosystem of lending, DEX, insurance, wealth management, etc. , and all of this is currently only implemented on Ethereum.
Especially with the introduction of Ethereum 2.0, DeFi will no longer be subject to performance bottlenecks, and decentralized finance will be further developed.
3. Ethereum ETF is coming soon
In February 2021, the world's largest derivatives exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, will launch Ethereum futures, making Ethereum the second encrypted commodity registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ) to clear the way
Wall Street has been trying unsuccessfully to launch a Bitcoin ETF for years, with every application being rejected every time. But the chances of passing this year are much greater than before, as Bitcoin has gained favor from institutions and companies such as PayPal, MircoStrategy, Square, Grayscale, Galaxy Digital, Stone Ridge, and others.
And these traditional institutions will accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin ETF, because they have enough money and resources to lobby relevant US institutions. It can be said that the chances of Bitcoin ETF approval this year have never been so high.
Bitcoin ETF approved, is Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, still far from ETF?
Once the Ethereum ETF is approved, the traditional financial market will completely open the door for Ethereum. Investors can invest in Ethereum without actually buying and storing Ethereum, just like buying paper gold on Alipay.
4. The Ethereum killer will be slaughtered
Many projects promise to provide a faster and more complex smart contract platform, claiming to create blockchain 3.0, and three years have passed, but no Ethereum killer has emerged.
EOS, which was once glorious, is now a mess. The market is not satisfied with the current Ethereum, especially in the stage of network congestion. The market pins its hopes on the killers of Ethereum. The new public chain is superior to Ethereum in terms of performance, mechanism, and development friendliness. Unfortunately, these efforts are fruitless, only because of the first-mover advantage of Ethereum.
The perfect infrastructure and large user base on Ethereum further attract more new projects to be developed on Ethereum, which in turn further expands the ecosystem of Ethereum, forming a positive cycle and becoming stronger and stronger. Currently, the market is criticizing the performance of Ethereum, but with the implementation of the Ethereum 2.0 plan, the hope of the new public chain will become increasingly slim.
On the other hand, Ethereum ERC20 tokens have also begun to rise. Star DeFi currencies such as UNI, SNX, YFI, AAVE, etc. are all Ethereum-based. In the future, the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market value will form the absolute dominance of Ethereum-based.
Star public chains such as DOT and NEAR are trying to carve up a share of the public chain market, but what is certain is that the dominant position of Ethereum will be unshakable for a long time.
5. Huge impetus for large-scale water release
In 2020, the four major central banks of the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Japan will release a total of US$22 trillion to rescue financial liquidity, which is equivalent to the annual economic output of the United States. On December 20, 2020, the U.S. Congress once again passed a $900 billion stimulus bill in response to the new crown epidemic, which will directly distribute $600 in cash to American individuals, and each unemployed American will also receive a $300 weekly subsidy. In every major crisis, global central banks will release water, and the stock market and real estate will rise sharply. This year's global central banks have released water, which is undoubtedly the main reason for the frenzy in the encryption market.
Obviously, this trend will continue in 2021. In the past 10 months, the United States has printed 35% of US dollars, and more will be printed later. How long can the role of stimulating the economy by releasing water last? will tell us the answer.
All we have to do is watch the dollar sink to the bottom of the sea, and the crazy printing of dollars will only get us out of the dust.
