Last week, CoinDesk Research released its newest report, "Understanding Ethereum", a 48-page deep dive into the emerging blockchain platform, its major players, its startup community and technological building blocks.
Our longest report to date, " Understanding Ethereum " also includes analysis on the ethereum ecosystem that seeks to illuminate how users are leveraging the platform today, and whether this matches with the intent of the platform’s creators.
Released at a time when many in the broader community are heatedly debating the merits of ethereum and its long-term viability, the report is a must-read for those who want a condensed yet comprehensive overview of why the platform has captured interest in the blockchain industry and beyond.
In the following sections, we highlight some of the major findings:
1. Exchanges are driving volume; what this means is less clear
One aspect of the ethereum ecosystem we sought to study was how much of the market was being driven by real users, given the platform was meant to be used for building applications rather than currency or investment vehicle.
In practice, however, trades facilitated by ethereum exchanges are still the dominant form of transactions on the network.
Data analysis reveals exchanges account for just under 15% of the total number of transactions, but over 50% of the volume that passes through the network daily.As for whether this activity could be qualified as "speculative", remains a matter of interpretation. For example, it remains unknown whether exchange users are making ether purchases to invest in the network’s future or otherwise prepare for running decentralized applications (dapps).However, it’s worth noting that, today, the amount of ether sent to dapps, defined as collections of one or more smart contracts, remains comparably lower.Funds sent to smart contracts, including dapps, account for 6.39% of the daily transaction total and roughly 12% of total […]
