Why Will Ethereum Fail?

in #ethereum7 years ago



I know the first time I posted about Ether here on Steemit, I had a strong feedback from the community that prompted me to change the content of my post 180 degrees. People do not want to hear what you have to say, they want you to say what they want to hear.

When the Dao disaster happened, I did what made sense at the time, bought the DAO when there was blood and sold when they supposedly saved it. But we all know it was not really saved, and the disaster caused Eth classic to come to existence.

The tale of two Ethers continues. My opinion of both is the same. What appears to be working does not mean it's actually working. Yes some people made a ton of money, and continue to do so, but that is not an indication it's working. Remember a lot of people made a ton of money from Enron before the illusion collapsed.

The road ahead for Ether will be harder and harder, as new competing projects with more competent developers show up, these projects will put the nail in Ether's coffin. I will name two projects, Qtum and EOS.

Why will Ether collapse?
As more and more tokens are created, large sums of ETH is taken out and set aside, this creates a bubble. Most of these tokens if not all have a monthly burn rate, which means they all have to dump ETH to supposedly fund their projects. We will reach a point where the ETH being dumped far exceeds the ETH being locked away. Some projects are now accounting for that by giving the developers the ability in the contract to divest a large sum of Ether if the need arises. So as we go forward one Ether bad news could send all these projects on a run to the bank and cashout of Ether while it's still worth it.

This is not an assumption, bad news happen, and with incompetent developers it happens more often. These contracts which are pushing Ether prices ever so high, will be the cause of it's crash.

Here comes the competition, as people start to realize the problems plaguing Ether code, they will migrate to safer and better options. No one denies that Amazon is chief when it comes to the cloud, but Google and Microsoft are cutting into the market share. If Amazon suffers problems in the future it won't be hard for one of the two to jump in and fill the gap, even take the lead. The same will happen with Ether, and I do not find it hard to believe that either Qtum or EOS will one day take the lead.

These projects will not have the issues of split community, and scalabilty . Both projects learned from Ether problems and are dealing with them before release. While Ether developers are way too cautious now because of the fear of another disaster. Eventually Ether will lack behind, and sink into debates similar to those taking place now on Bitcoin.

Ether overtaking Bitcoin market cap?
I do not think so. I am expecting the complete opposite, not as bad as removed for lack of interest, but not the huge success ETH fans think it will be. Too big to fail? maybe, but there is no government that will jump in and save it, and the whales who saved it the first time from collapse will have other options.

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I'm sorry to say I think you are right on this and I used to be one of the biggest ether fans.

The DAO made me lose a lot of faith in the project.

The current token shenanigans aren't really helping to win me back either.

I also think the switch to CASPER, sharding, POS etc will lead to more splits in the community over time.

Further I don't think Vitalik is quite the genius we all believed he was. He is clever for sure but as I saw someone say on Twitter he doesn't really seem to have much knowledge of human behaviour or motivations and I would agree.

I would go as far as to say that there is a severe lack of understanding of human psychology and behaviour within the entire ethereum foundation.

This really started to become evident to me when I became involved in the DAO and they asked me to get involved as a mod.

Some of the things I heard then basically changed my opinion of the people that were at the centre of the whole ethereum movement.

Also despite people in the ethereum community mocking alternatives I think they do have certain advantages.

For example - JS is a lot easier to get developers for than Solidity and that ultimately might make those platforms more secure and more open to scrutiny.

Hope we are wrong but maybe not.

Too bad you think features that have been on the roadmap since the beginning such as POS and sharding will be detrimental to the community. These have been planned since the beginning so if you aren't on board, you should have done some more investment research.

Ethereum is welcome to criticism and competition.

I don't agree with your assessment of Vitalik - he has some of the most levelheaded opinions when it comes to crypto-economics. He is polite, funny and extremely transparent. Only other individual whose opinion I regard as highly is Vlad Z.

Or perhaps I disagree with you and have made a rational judgement based on my own observations - just to be clear I have followed Ether since the beginning. This is exactly like the attitude I saw during the DAO. Ultimately we will see.

I am not condemning your assessment, I just make it clear what the original intentions were.

I am not sure what attitude you are referring to regarding the DAO. I've been a part of this since the start as well, I am not calling your decisions irrational.

In my assessment Eth today is very far from a 'proof of Vitalik'

OK I misunderstood then.

You should probably have a look at the wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO_(organization)

And watch this

Imo the number 1 reason most all cryptos are doomed to fail is because they are all being "crowd funded" by people who already got wealthy on the fair winds of the social media boom. But we are already beginning to see cracks in that business model with Utube in particular. Big business (the "ultimate" big whale) was willing to come in and fuel Utube s growth but now corporations are pulling back on their advertising budgets. It's just being presented as "the liberals" against the free speech crowd to keep the new voice of the world (Utube, steemit bloggers) as far enough away from the truth as necessary so that the truth isn't obvious. The windup is that when the money dries up, the income for those creating content dries up. The stock prices of ALL social media giants are now priced as if it will continue forever....but it won't. And I just revealed the "real reason" why Utube cut back on subsidies to content providers. When Google is downsizing within its own ranks (cutting employees) the money behind some of these little ventures like steemit will be long gone I'm sure. I hope steemit survives. This is a very good site and the thing I noticed most is that none of the blogs I have read have anyone pushing an agenda for the sole purpose of enriching themselves. I'm actually surprised that there are so few cockroaches here. :-)

I'm sure the cockroaches will come lol. Thanks for your well thought out response:)

They will come in their droves, and we are ill prepared.

How would be be able to get prepared?

I doubt social media Youtubers are funding the crowd sales.

I doubt it myself. Utubers with established followings are simply showing up when the sentiment turns into a euphoric frenzy and posting anything they want to say because they know all of their followers will upvote ANYTHING they say. I said the Silly Con Valley types who benefitted from where the funds were misallocated by the Wall St money runners are the ones who will tighten the purse strings at the first sign of trouble. Which is why I am "hoping" the first sign of trouble is like the Oct 1987 crash but 30% of the market cap of everything gets taken out in two days of trading. That'd be fun to watch. No? :-)

Wow, glad I saw this. I've been watching Etheruem and some other coins this week as I'm starting to diversify, may lighten my planned allocation for this one a just little and put toward some others.

Get a few ETH, just don't go super crazy about it. Unless you really, really see something big happening at some point. :)

yeah hedging your bets is always wise, especially when there is so much growth in this sector.

Thanks! That's the plan. I was leaning toward a larger allocation toward ETH than a few others but probably go even balance between the three or four of them.

I think it is best to make the decision for yourself because people can easily be wrong. Always do your own research if you can.

But of course, that is a given. Appreciate the look out though :-)

wow that is some good insight on a very important topic, we have to be careful how our money is invested in crypto at a critical point in crypto history

JavaScript is only used by Ethereum to access its API, and it is NOT used to create smart contracts. There is a huge difference between those two aspects and you seem to be confusing them.

Also, while they share a similar syntax, Solidity is a statically typed language, while JavaScript is the opposite. This makes them very different.

I never stated that JavaScript is used for writing smart contracts - and btw it simply doesn't matter what programming language is used for smart contract as long as it's the compilation is fast. So Ethernet makes use both of JavaScript and Solidity. Btw for those who doesn't know - Solidity syntax is derived from JavaScript.

Innuendo is EOS supporter and they want to promote EOS this is why they are so active here on this page

I never stated that JavaScript is used for writing smart contracts.

Then your input is just confusing and meaningless because having a JavaScript API is nothing unusual and has nothing to do with the subject being discussed.

It simply doesn't matter what programming language is used for smart contract as long as it's the compilation is fast.

If it doesn't matter (which is not true), why do you waste your time arguing about ETH using it?

So Ethernet makes use both of JavaScript and Solidity.

It also uses C++ and Go and Python and a few other languages. Solidity is used to create contracts, while JavaScript is used to deploy those contracts and interact with them. Ignoring this important distinction is an error.

Innuendo is EOS supporter and they want to promote EOS this is why they are so active here on this page.

No matter what I think of EOS, your statements about ETH are still confusing and false.

OK - it's obvious you missed to read the original comment I answer to - it's already in there why I mention Javascript

You are using hate speech so please stop defame otherwise my lawyers will be happy to deal with you.

What where - sorry - is your last comment for me

No ethereum uses Solidity.

Are you a programmer - because I am - and I can tell you ETH is using Javascript

ETH uses Javascript but smart contracts typically are programmed in Solidity. The problem is Solidity isn't a mature, safe, or good choice in terms of language. Tezos and EOS can now eat Ethereum's cake simply by having a better language and better libraries.

As far as I know, Solidity does not even have a standard library.

Is really Javascript needed instead of Solidity for the application subject of discussion - smart contracts - hard to say yes and to agree with you guys - why should be Javascript be better FOR smart contacts

Javascript is great.. for.. web development ... for great UI and UX on browser and modern phones... but not for Smart Contracts..

I actually think that Solidity - it's better for a Smart Contract ... because of simplicity!! Not everyone can learn Javascript - but Solidity and ETH Smart Contracts yes... it's matter of a week and you can MASTER Solidity and ETH Smart Contracts...

Also - Can you please answer a question @dana-edwards

Do you think it does really matter the language used to build a software

If yes - why

Isn't more important the market and the real applications, maybe? Like working to bring EOS/ETH or whatever you are fun - on your local market... at your tabacco store.. or your supermarket... ??? These endless competition online makes no sense - if you want to promote your favorite coin @dana-edwards or @joseph / @thecryptofiend / @kyle.anderson - stop posting online and go outside in the real world and start PROMOTING and PROVIDING real TOOLS to EVERYDAY people and business... for EVERYDAY situations... it doesn't matter if is Solidity or Javascript... it doesn't matter you have 10000 followers... or make 1000$ on steemit.. if there is no market for it...or am I wrong?

No I'm not a programmer. Doesn't change how I feel about it either way. Also you already said that.

Science is not about feelings - if you search for that - no coin will never do good for you.

Thanks I don't need your advice I choose to think for myself. Further it seems you are intent on spamming this thread.

Yes, you read that right, he used the word "lawyers" - plural. Better call Saul.

JavaScript is a programming language not an Advice. You are the only one doing spam here - posting fantasy comments and affirming ETH use no Javascript. Where's the spam I do - please stop defame otherwise my lawyers will be happy to deal with you.

Ethereum uses JS as well - see GITHUB

quote from GITHUB - third party element - Ethereum implements a javascript runtime environment (JSRE) that can be used in either interactive (console) or non-interactive (script) mode.

Ethereum's Javascript console exposes the full web3 JavaScript Dapp API and the admin API.

Solidity is pretty horrible and the development tools for Ethereum aren't very good. The problem is that the alternatives will have even less. I don't know about EOS but Tezos will have to build libraries. Without libraries we cannot do anything as a programmer without reinventing the wheel. Libraries allow programmers to get things done in a safe way, following best practices, and Solidity lacks maturity in that area which led to The DAO.

JS would be a horrible choice for security but it is probably better than Solidity which is to say, Solidity isn't any better but has less tools and maturity.

That was kind of what I was thinking - better the devil you know and all that. I think I generally get nervous when any single "basket" has so many eggs placed into it - it is better to have more competition.

Your right. Solidity and Serpent tools were really lacking last year. They are getting much better. Visual studio support etc... EOS and Tezos (ignoring the IP issues with Tezos in the first place) will need to do lots of work to even get where Ethereum development has reached.

Why you lose faith with DAO

I think it was an exercise in ignoring good advice and mocking anyone that tried to point out potential problems. The whole crisis could have been averted if they had listened to people instead of being arrogant and mocking them. I don't think anything has changed since then.

I agree with you 100 percent, people are treating Vitali as if he's a God and can do no wrong. There are many flaws in Ethereum and they will be exposed as better projects come along. L

Well, it will fail because it's a bubble. Read my article on it https://steemit.com/ethereum/@alex-icey/is-cyrptocurrency-a-bubble

How can I have been NOT following you ? Error fixed !

Nice point of view !

This is really poorly researched, which is a shame because blockchain projects are open and transparent and Steemit should hold articles critical of competitors and other chains to higher standards, if only for the fact that they will naturally draw in people from other projects and perhaps be the first thing by which they judge Steem. In this case, they would think we can't research, analyze, or write well.

Here is an example of non-existent reseach.

The article claims: "As more and more tokens are created, large sums of ETH is taken out and set aside, this creates a bubble. Most of these tokens if not all have a monthly burn rate, which means they all have to dump ETH to supposedly fund their projects. We will reach a point where the ETH being dumped far exceeds the ETH being locked away."

The amount of ETH locked up in contracts for ICOs and tokens is not even 3% of all ETH. It is not even a material amount of ETH. Furthermore, the largest token contracts that hold ETH have barely sold or not sold any ETH.

To check to see if this analysis makes any sense, you can look at the daily trading volume of ETH and compare it to the amount of ETH locked up in these contracts and see how much market impact these token contract held ETH have relative to the market. In the last 24hours, there has been $500mm in trading volume in ETH. That is more than ALL the ETH held by token contracts. This thesis doesn't hold water.

And the research is so bad here that it makes Steemit look bad. We need to hold our articles to higher standards than this.

Part of the appeal of Steemit is that there are only community standards. True it lets in unfounded claims etc. but the benefit is a variety of viewpoints. The community may at times upvote complete hogwash but that's a small price to pay for a system that has more freedom and flexibility than other social media.

In the future I hope to see the API lead to iterations of Steem front-ends which cater to different communities and their needs. For example I'd rather peruse articles with more science and critical thinking as opposed to conspiracy theories, religious writings and woo. Such a community could form their own filtration of the blockchain and hold their own standards.

My point being if it's submitted it's on the blockchain and that's fine. It's the filtering that needs some work so people can apply the standards they seek. If somebody wants to find what you consider poorly researched opinion pieces isn't it their right to find that here?

To be clear I'm not challenging your assertions about ETH. I'm making comment on your starting point about standards. By all means it's up to the Steem users to use their voting power to create standards.

No worries, your comment is spot on.

It's a little different than my point, which is that for the growth of Steemit today, blindly upvoting articles that are 1) poorly researched and 2) will antagonize or put off people who would fit in well with Steemit is bad strategically. For anyone from the Ethereum community whose first experience with Steemit was this article and see how successful it was, they would laugh off Steemit as a joke.

You can't please everybody.

Your point is taken. It's just that first of all I doubt reasonable people would blow off Steem because some percentage of the content is at odds with them. Secondly, and it's hard to phrase this properly without sounding elitist, do we really need people here who are so easily turned off? Consider that this is community generated content. You'll seldom find complete accuracy here although one would wish the best examples of researched journalism would receive the most backing.

Your call for quality journalism is commended. alas it's something that while we might assume cream will rise to the top people flock mostly to what they want to hear.

Humans.

Well put. I am glad that someone else was also able to point out his mistakes. Not many people payed attention to my comments above.

You know what your talking about. Don't know why I was not following. Don't worry I fixed that problem.

People hold ETH because it is a better store of value than Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency right now. It is trending up, and people expect that to continue. There is a shortage of stable tokens which requires the current situation. Also it's not easy to spend ETH, there aren't shops accepting ETH like it is currency, and taxes are high for those who cash out into fiat. Typically people spend as little of it as possible and hedge.

One thing about Ethereum is, it's market cap is likely to go up when it switches to Proof of Stake and everyone else expects similar. So it's hard to sell it for peanuts. Whether it is a bubble? Most spaces are in a bubble, real estate, stocks, housing, so why would crypto be any different from everything else in the economy?

It's also a typical bubble. We get these cycles and have seen this before in 2011 and in 2013.

There is a difference between performance of an asset and its quality as a store of value. ETH has seen tremendous performance recently - other assets might enjoy a position as a better long term store of value.

Yes, people, please read this and use your brain. I couldn't have written it better.

Should I make a video explaining why Eth will be bigger than BTC?

Let me know, I'll do it if you guys are interested. It'll take about 4 mins

Go ahead, I would like to see that.

I just made the vid, It's uploading to youtube right now. I'll post it to the comments when it loads. (I'm not on my wifi right now so It might take a while)

thank you will wait for it :D

I'm going to have to agree with marc on this one here. Great video this thing is backed by major players. I see them wanting ETH to grow.

I am glad you expressed your opinion, and I respect that. The ethereum discussion will bring strong feelings from both sides of an argument. Some will think I am a hater, but I did buy ETH many times to invest in projects built on ethereum because I know I can make money that way. I will not argue against trading Ethereum to make money, in this post I just express what I think will eventually happen to Ethereum. I am human and I could be wrong.

Hell, nothing is guarantee. Watch out for dogecoin though, I feel like it's about to surprise us all now that it's reaching Japan

:D

Dogecoin - what an anomaly...Who says there has to be any business model if you have the volume. Also keeping my eyes on doge to see what happens

In the short run, More and more people and corporations are investing in Ethereum because they see the potential in smart contracts and the growth opportunity for other block chain startups to use Ethereum's tech and build products. Dumping 10,000 or 100,000s or even 1 million ethers won't do any harm as this will simply create a opportunity to buy the dip for investors.
Long term view of Ethereum is definitely here to stay, I see ethereum more like IOS ecosystem in the next 2 years.

Dump it where? Who and what can buy that many at a time? What exchange? How would someone cash out 1 million ETH into fiat? None of these scenarios of dumping make any practical sense and are just FUD.

First show how it is possible to dump enough to crash the bubble. Panic sells from day traders and career speculators isn't going to crash the price if it is a bubble unless you believe the vast majority involved in the space are day traders and speculators. I don't think the vast majority of holders will be day traders and speculators.

If millions of people hold ETH for 4-5 years, then the price I would think will be pretty stable. People who buy Bitcoin often buy it and put it in cold storage for years. Some will buy ETH and treat it like a long term lottery ticket and not touch it for 5 years or until they retire. So with that mentality, it will not matter what the price is that day, or that month, as long term holders don't care if it's a bubble or recession as long as the space as a whole is growing.

Even a failed ETH isn't going to go away. It will stick around for 5-10 years with a high market cap in my opinion. It's just if it fails another tech will eventually acquire a higher market cap.

I fairly agree with you Dana, Ethereum is not going anywhere for the next 2 or possibly 5 years as investors are still seeing this as a great tech which can grow significantly. Hence the dumping of large ether as suggested in this video by @majorleaguemarc will provide a great opportunity to buy the dip for long term investors. As I mentioned earlier, I see Ethereum as an IOS / Android app store for block chain startups so it's definitely here to stay!

You make good points. I don't think Ethereum will be #2 when it meets the masses. I think Bitcoin will fade this year to Ethereum. At the same time I see in 2019 and beyond being when Ethereum begins to fade as superior tech begins to hit stride.

But I don't see Ethereum losing it's place overnight just like Bitcoin didn't. It takes years and market cap isn't going to "dump" into something else, something new and experimental. People won't just leave Ethereum just because a better tech exists, it will require Ethereum has technical/political failures like Bitcoin is currently having.

In my opinion the goal shouldn't be to stop Ethereum or to care how much money people make in ETH. What matters is bringing crypto to the masses and expanding the ecosystem, and Ethereum is only one part of a potentially trillion dollar industry. There is enough space for every one of these projects to be in the tens or hundreds of billions.

Look the video - ETH is there to stay - Marc is right.

Nice vid. I'm following. Follow me back for some of my crypto trades/recommendations if you want

Your stated a strong facts:

  • The masses is introduced to blockchain with ETH being number 2.
  • It's hard to change the first impression people get
  • Big companies are backing project on ETH.

Thank you for your insight.

great job in jumping in with your thoughts. I feel the way you do here, but im unsure, still learning, and its a new world of information, other opinions are very important to building the picture.

One may be bigger than the other. They are not mutually exclusive. They are both entirely different projects with different users and use cases.

Please let me just say that I have no experience in cryptocurrencies nor am I even a little smart but I do have strong intuition. I agree with you that one day ETH will outpace BTC but that both will be around for a very, very long time. IMHO...ok, continue on! Aloha!

Seems obvious ETH will be bigger than BTC but that isn't saying very much. The question is will EOS, Tezos, Qtum and others also get bigger? I would think we haven't even started to see how big it is going to get. Next year is when the real bubble will begin if this is one, as we could have ETH in the hundreds of billions market cap and the space could be approaching the trillion dollar level. That in my opinion is a true bubble.

Me too :) Do it :P

i second @joseph too, it might let me know what i will do with the little Dogecoins have been gathering.

ETHEREUM value will be at least 10000$ by 2020

Hello, I just eager to know. How do you calculate/estimate ETH price? What are factors for ETH price?

There's an article of mine here on Steemit with detail. Basically I use current real data of blockchains. I do a projection based on previous patterns / current project status and simple facts. You can see more there https://steemit.com/ethereum/@digitalplayer/ethereum-price-prediction-2020#@digitalplayer/re-williebeaman-re-digitalplayer-ethereum-price-prediction-2020-20170601t222036220z

Thanks for prediction. But I still have doubt if BTC will be $500,000 per coin by 2020 (in just 3 years).

this is not why I say.

it looks like my article is not clear... I say it will be 100 000 not 500 000

I don't believe this. I think a market cap in the hundreds of billions is realistic and can happen in 2018 if not sooner. I do not think we will see any crypto tech with a trillion dollar market cap by 2020 because that would require true mainstream Facebook scale adoption of crypto which isn't going to happen in mere 3 years. I do see the entire space reaching 1 trillion by 2020, I just don't see Ethereum having a trillion all to itself as if these other tokens aren't there.

Ethereum will do very well, will be in the hundreds of billions, will be in it's bubble at 100 billion+, but there will be others.

Hi @dana-edwards - thank you for comment I really appreciate it.

The reality is complex and here on this page we are just trying to keep all short and nice I think.. this is what I do... but ... let me ask... what's your analysis estimation for Ethereum marketplace by 2020 ?

I invite you to tell your vision on

https://steemit.com/ethereum/@digitalplayer/ethereum-price-prediction-2020

Thanks for reading

Happy saturday

Which one is available on coinbase classic or the normal one?

Coinbase has the normal one.

Thanks buddie, i apprciate this....

No problem man! Anytime.

I don't use COINBASE but I can tell you that normal Ethereum is called just Ethereum - so if no classic word on COINBASE it means it's not classic.

Thanks man, that helps...

10k is waaaay too much, you're not thinking straight. 3-5k, though, could be a more realistic goal.

yes sure go for it, share it to us after you finished your video

Good luck :)

With Casper there will be again two ETH and new opportunity to earn something.

Check out my recent post here for some more in-depth and levelheaded discussion of actual Ethereum issues.
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@kyle.anderson/more-money-for-the-early-visionaries-why-the-eth-chain-is-so-successful-revisiting-why-consensus

The issues has been already surpassed 1 year ago - and Joseph prediction will not magically happens as someone hopes.

@donkeypong I had no idea of these underlying issues as this is a whole new world even though I read about the main headlines this type of stuff does not show here easily for Joe average to read.

It's sort of promotion these guys on this page wanna do for EOS coin - their coin - basically what they want to tell us is "eth is bad buy EOS" - unfortunately they are using not real facts and arguments - they are slandering ethereum to promote their coin within steemit community

Thank you very much for your time to explain this, I very much appreciate it.

I love the tone you are using in writing this article as well as the one used to argue with. You underlined a very powerful truth many often forget to take in consideration when making a judgment on something "People do not want to hear what you have to say, they want you to say what they want to hear."

Thank you for your diplomacy, argumentation and respectful tone. I'm glad to read your article as I learned some more about this problematic that only seems to be getting bigger and bigger as time passes by.

Namaste :)

Nice post Joseph. I think ETH may be pumped to $1K before. There are a lot of ICOs - almost everyday. ETH is corpo coin - more companies are interested in crypto. The best alternative for ETH is now UBQ (priced ~$1) - huge potencial.

I agree, I never argued against trading ETH or ETH tokens. However, long term there should be a lot of caution.

Agreed. Good point! One of the best coin now is HUSH. I hope you agree with that :)

David Mercer is a brilliant coder, I have to agree with that.

Long term none of these projects are going to be the ultimate winner without significant evolution. Ethereum is limited in how it can evolve compared to Tezos and Tauchain for instance. That said, mainstream adoption will reach Ethereum and they will win in the same way Microsoft once had control of the browser. The better tech doesn't always get the users.

This post and the comments made a great read on a lazy saturday morning! Thanks for the post! @joseph! :)

steemit.chat admin and lazy morning, I find that hard to believe :D
Glad you took a break to read this.

hahah yeah! Sometimes I want to get away from that and enjoy reading a few good articles. I love reading stuff in general and on Steemit! :D

Glad to see such a post here - usually it is only a praise for any can someone is promoting. I have some good friends investing all their money currently in Ethereum - hope they make some money now.