Ethereum, or ETH, as it is more commonly called, is one of the biggest cryptocurrencies out there. At $459.16 billion, it is the second biggest crypto by market cap, next only to Bitcoin. It holds 18.4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. One Ether token is currently valued at $3,520.23. However, there are many more facts to know about Ethereum and its features. In this article, you can also get free Ethereum.
6 Biggest Ethereum Facts
1. It Was a Crowdfunded Project
The concept of Ethereum as a cryptocurrency came to life in 2013, just four years after the birth of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency. Ethereum was the brainchild of Vitalik Buterin, who was a co-founder of the Bitcoin online news website at the time. However, funding was one big challenge to the Ethereum project at that time.
It came at a time when crypto and crypto trading were still relatively unknown, and only Bitcoin was in the game. In 2013, the almighty Bitcoin started at just $13, so it would have been tough for a newcomer to convince big investors to fund the project.
That same year, many companies, particularly start-ups, were turning to crowdfunding as an alternative funding source, and the Ethereum team did the same. Ethereum turned to the masses to fund the project. By the end of the crowdfunding period, which was on June 1, 2018, they had been able to raise $4,100,000,000, which is worth 7.12 million ETH. It became the biggest crowdfunded project ever. No one saw it coming, but they were able to pull it off. In the end, it was a win-win for everyone. Happy investors, happy Ethereum team!
2. Ethereum Has No Limited Availability
To preserve the currency’s rarity and value, many cryptos usually have a fixed number of coins that will ever be in circulation. Bitcoin, for example, has a maximum supply of 21 million, meaning that only 21 million Bitcoins will ever exist; no more can be created or mined. Binance Coin (BNB) has a limited supply of 166,801,148, and Solana (SOL) is limited to 488,630,611.
Well, this does not apply to Ethereum. In other words, Ethereum does not have a limited supply. As of August 2022, over 121.97 million ETH were already in circulation, which means it had already passed Bitcoin’s supply limit by 100 million coins. This is good news for anyone seeking to invest in ETH.
Of course, the founders still put some limits on the supply of Ethereum; it’s not exactly unlimited in the full sense. Like Dogecoin, which has a cap of 5 billion DOGE per year, Ethereum has a cap of 18 million ETH per year, which means only 18 million new ETH can be created in a year.
Moreover, the amount of ETH in circulation is also expected to decrease over the years because of the EIP-1559 burn mechanism, which was designed to address congestion.
3. Ethereum Has an Ice Age Feature
Ethereum has an Ice Age feature, but it’s not what you think. This feature is not related in any way to the animated movie “Ice Age.” It is a little bit more “techy.” Ethereum’s Ice Age feature is also known as “the difficulty bomb.” It is a mining adjustment mechanism added to the Ethereum network to help them reach their goals of switching from Proof of Work Ethereum 1.0 to Proof of Stake Ethereum 2.0 by increasing the difficulty of mining new ETH over time. This Ice Age feature was originally added to the Ethereum 1.x blockchain in 2015.
The rationale for the inclusion of the Ice Age feature is that when Ethereum was first created, its founders initially wanted it to run on the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. They tried to avoid Proof of Work altogether, but the technology was not quite there yet, and they had to settle for Proof of Work until they could sustainably move to Proof of Stake. However, Ethereum does not want to settle with Proof of Work forever, so they added the Ice Age feature to make things difficult for miners.
4. Ethereum Is More Than a Crypto
Yes, Ethereum is the second biggest crypto, but the Ethereum network is much more. The network can host Decentralized Applications, or dApps, as they are popularly known. dApps are just like any other applications we use on our computers except for one thing—they run on the Ethereum network. dApps are just software applications that run on a distributed network. They are not hosted on a centralized server but on a peer-to-peer decentralized network.
The rationale for dApps is that the current way of dealing with app information is a situation where the owners of the apps have access to information about your social life, health, finances, and everything you do on the internet in exchange for providing you with their services or letting you use their apps. These owners can even completely block you from accessing your information and end their services with you. But with dApps, nobody gets to control your information or monopolize it. dApps decentralize control of information to provide internet freedom and do it with Ethereum.
5. Ethereum Is Inspired by Anime
While Ethereum has evolved to become a very complex technological invention, it originated in anime. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s anime “Laputa: Castle In The Sky,” where one of the anime’s heroes used a magic crystal called “Aethereum” to extract energy from the air.
That’s where the inspiration for the second biggest crypto was born.
6. Ethereum Has Gone to Space
Believe it or not, Ethereum went into space in 2021. That year, SpaceChain launched the first Ethereum node in space through a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceChain launched its first Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2018, claiming that the satellite switch is cheaper than geostationary monitoring.
They use these satellites as blockchain nodes to store, process, transmit data, and develop applications.
Extending the Ethereum network to space is a way to increase blockchain technology’s decentralization and improve its security and resilience.
Conclusion
Ethereum has become one of the most prominent players in the crypto space, not by being average. What we have discussed in this article are only a few of its unique features; there are still more technological advancements that have made Ethereum stand out. But Ethereum is not stopping anytime soon. With Ethereum 2.0 and the help of the Ethereum community, we expect to see more.
