Running out of gas?

Why Ethereum, the 'silver' of cryptocurrency, is losing its shine.

So recently, as you may have seen I spoke to WPP TV about the world of cryptocurrency and why it represents a story of Gold, Greed, and Good, with Bitcoin representing the Gold.?

(https://www.wpp.com/tv/2022/01/the-rise-of-cryptocurrencies-and-what-brands-need-to-know)

Now what I didn't reference then, mainly due to time, is that if Bitcoin has been considered digital Gold by many, Ethereum has been regarded as digital silver in the world of cryptocurrency, running second, be it with some distance to bitcoin in its absolute value.?

And in 2021, this position was further enhanced by the explosion in the NFT marketplace from $100million in 2020 to around $22billion in 2021, the majority of which flowed through the Ethereum blockchain and cryptocurrency.?

But what at first glance seems a fantastic success has brought with it the mother of all problems for Ethereum.??

And that problem is Gas.?Or rather a lack of it.?

Now for those of you not versed in the language of cryptocurrency, Gas or 'Gas fees" are the payments made by users to compensate for the computing energy required to process and validate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, and?"Gas limit" refers to the maximum amount of Gas (or energy) that you're willing to spend on a particular transaction.

And the problem is there immense but straightforward. As the demand for validating transactions on Ethereum has grown, there is not enough capacity or miners available to do this.?

The result of this is both a slowing down of the network speed and a rapid increase in the cost of making transactions on Ethereum.?

Now clearly, if someone of such limited intelligence as myself can spot this, it goes without saying that so have those tasked with custody of Ethereum.?

Indeed tremendous efforts are underway to move from its proof of work - mining model - to one based on 'proof of stake'.?

However, this is not a simple transition.

?It is a redesign and rewiring of a blockchain while live, something not done before and with no guarantee of success.?

And into this has stepped Richard Heart, the charismatic founder of the HEX cryptocurrency with the pulse chain project.

Still in development but inked for release in Mid 2022, Pulse chain is a new blockchain network based on proof of stake not work and, as a result, with much faster and cheaper gas fees.?

And here's the kicker, for Ethereum at least.?

It launches based on a complete snapshot of the existing Ethereum network, with the biggest airdrop ever.?

That means quite simply that if you hold any Ethereum or ERC-20 tokens, you will be given a replica of those on the Pulsechain network free of charge.?

Quite the launch stunt and a genius blueprint for future marketing in the Web3 space.?

And having been signed up to the pulse chain test net myself - I can confirm that, in testing at least, pulse chain delivers on its promise of better, faster and cheaper?

So what does this mean for the silver of cryptocurrency going forwards?

Well, Ethereum may be struggling, but it is not dead, and I would not be so bold as to suggest it will fade away and die.

However, for me, Ethereum, once one of my favorite cryptos, has lost a lot of its shine.?

Indeed, I have just sold the majority of my holdings to move into second and third generating blockchains that offer fast and cheap proof of stake transactions, projects such as Algorand and Stellar Lumins, along with what I consider the stalking horse at present crypto.com and its native currency CRO.

And likewise, I have moved my NFT activity away from Ethereum to other growing platforms like crypto.com (just launched), Solana, and even XRP, which has a new and rapidly increasing NFT community. And in this, I am not along with a significant shift away from Ethereum occurring in the NFT space as we begin 2022.

So, in conclusion, while Ethereum does have a place in the cryptocurrency world, for me, it is starting to become more of a value store and not a transactional currency, just like bitcoin.?

As a result, I think we will see many people who believed they had gained a first-mover advantage, especially in the world of NFT's, lose that advantage as they seek other alternatives to Ethereum.??

So am I right or wrong? - let me know what you think in the comments!?