Will Ethereum be the next Bitcoin in 2018?

Probably.Judge the facts,not opinions.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Differ In Purpose

Bitcoin is created as an alternative to regular money and is thus a medium of payment transaction and store of value, Ethereum is developed as a platform which facilitates peer-to-peer contracts and applications via its own currency vehicle. While Bitcoin and Ether are both digital currencies, the primary purpose of Ether is not to establish itself as a payment alternative (unlike Bitcoin) but to facilitate and monetize the working of Ethereum to enable developers to build and run distributed applications (ĐApps).

With Bitcoin, there is an industry developing to provide wallets and applications for peer-to-peer payments, the “internet-of-money”. Although it is possible to get an Ethereum wallet and exchange ethers across the Ethereum network, there seems to be no intention in Ethereum to develop it as a payments network, nor to encourage other developers to do so. Payments with ethers are a possible use of the network, but, as a “World computer”, Ethereum should be capable of much, much more.

As such, optimism around the development activity of the Ethereum network will continue to push the price of Ether up, and the transaction volume of Ethereum will rise exponentially in the upcoming months.

The flow of institutional money into the bitcoin market will also benefit the Ethereum market in the long-term, as investors expose themselves to the cryptocurrency market.