Ethereum (ETH) is an altcoin: a form of cryptocurrency that functions outside of a central bank or government. The Ethereum blockchain was launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin, and has undergone many changes since. With a hard fork that split the blockchain in two (Ethereum vs Ethereum Classic), this cryptocurrency is currently sitting as the coin with the second biggest market cap following bitcoin.
So, when we look at Ethereum in numbers, what has been achieved so far? We’ll be taking a look at the number of projects being built on the network, the number of transactions, transaction fees, network upgrades, development activity, as well as its biggest competitors.
Ethereum in Numbers
| Number of Projects Built on the Network | According to StateoftheDapps, there are currently 2639 projects built on the Ethereum blockchain. These include gambling dApps, exchanges, games, and even collectibles. |
| Amount of Transactions | As of mid-October 2019, there have been 563.45 million transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The highest number of transactions that ever took place on one day was on 4 January 2018, with a total of 1,349,900 transactions. |
| Transaction Fees | At the time of writing, the average transaction fee is $0.141 USD. This is significantly lower than BTC, which sits at $0.366 USD at the time of writing. |
| Network Upgrades | Ethereum has quite a long history of network updates, starting with Frontier on 30 July 2015 – Frontier was the first live release of the Ethereum network.
Followed by Homestead on 14 March 2016, and then the DAO Fork (splitting it into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic) on 20 July 2016.
Byzantium took place on 16 October 2017, and finally, Constantinople was implemented on 28 February 2019.
There is already another update in the works, Istanbul – which should bring about more network efficiencies. Then, Serenity should be the final iteration of the Ethereum blockchain once it is complete. |
| Development Activity | Electric Capital, a digital asset management company, managed to finger point more than 27,000 code repositories in the first half of 2019. This showed that Ethereum dominates development activity in the blockchain world, with the average number of active developers sitting at around 1,156 a month.
Contrastingly Bitcoin sees around 310 monthly average developers, and EOS has 224 monthly average developers. |
| Biggest Competitors | Bitcoin is Ethereum’s biggest competitor in terms of market cap, followed by Ripple.
However, neither of those blockchains functions in a similar way to the Ethereum blockchain (not ideal for dApps), so Ethereum’s biggest competition comes from smaller blockchains like EOS, NEO, Ethereum Classic, QTUM, and Cardano.
Still, Ethereum remains the most popular platform for building dApps at this time. |
Taking a look at Ethereum in numbers and what has been achieved so far, allows you to better understand the fluctuations in ETH’s price over the years. However, Ethereum is still the ultimate blockchain for building dApps, and its smart contract protocol is nothing short of genius.
When it comes to trading Ethereum, you’re unlikely to find better platforms than eToro, Binance or Coinbase. Make sure you use reputable sources when trading the second highest market cap coin.
“#Ethereum development may seem slow to those looking in, because they hear about the potential and expect it to ramify immediately. As though 787s and F35s were waiting in the wings at Kitty Hawk on that fateful day in 1903.”#devcon5 pic.twitter.com/RUjufzntFS
— Joseph Lubin (@ethereumJoseph) October 10, 2019
Ethereum: A Blockchain for Developers, by Developers
Ultimately, Ethereum is a blockchain for developers, by developers. Looking at Ethereum in numbers and what has been achieved so far, it’s clear that we’re still very much in the early days (but that’s true for all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin). There is still so much that can be done on the blockchain, and it’s still the favorite for dApp creators by a mile.