Ethereum, considered by many to be the most promising altcoin, has grabbed the attention of The New York Times. The “newspaper of record” has run a big feature story on Ethereum, noting its value has spiraled 1,000% in the last three months and is attracting interest from major financial companies that are using it for private blockchains and smart contracts. The story notes the first public version of Ethereum was recently released.
The story noted there are numerous applications built on Ethereum that allow new ways to place bets, pay bills and even launch Ponzi schemes.
Some cryptocurrency observers claim Ethereum will face more security issues than bitcoin due to its more complex software. The alt. currency system has faced less testing and suffered fewer attacks than bitcoin. The unusual design could also invite more regulatory scrutiny considering some potentially fraudulent contracts can be written into the system. Capabilities Draw Interest
However, the system’s capabilities have drawn interest from major corporations. Last year, IBM announced it was testing the alt.currency system as a way to manage real-world objects in the Internet of Things.
Microsoft has been working on various projects that make it easier to use Ethereum on its Azure computing cloud.
Marley Gray, a business development and strategy director at Microsoft, said Ethereum is a platform for solving problems in different industries. He called it the most “elegant” solution seen to date. Private Blockchains Expand
Many companies have created private blockchains using Ethereum. These private blockchains could eventually undermine the value of the Ether, the individual unit in the alt.currency system that people have been buying.
Major banks have shown interest in using blockchains to make transferring and trading money more efficient. Several banks have examined how to use Ethereum. JPMorgan has developed a tool called Masala that enables its internal databases […]
