Ethereum will be Bigger than AWS, Azure and Google combined - Pekka Kelkka

“Ethereum will be Bigger than AWS, Azure and Google combined” - Pekka Kelkka

“Ethereum will be Bigger than AWS, Azure and Google combined” - Pekka Kelkka

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Bitcoin and Ether hit their best values in more than nearly two months, despite concerns surrounding crypto restrictions in the US. YeFi.one founder Pekka Kelkka: We are on the second wave of this bull run and we will hit ATHs quite soon. We must increase regulators’ and lawmakers’ understanding of blockchain and cryptos. I’m positive that we will find a common ground. The biggest problem is the US politicians who are funded by the US banks and financial institutions. They will fight back but they will give up. Common sense will win.T

@ Ishan Pandey Ishan Pandey Crypto Veteran. Tokenization, DeFi and Security Tokens - Blockchain.

Ishan Pandey: Hi Pekka, welcome to our series “Behind the Startup.” Please tell us about yourself and the story behind YeFi?

Pekka Kelkka: Officially, the project came to life in mid-March 2021. However, several years before the actual launch of the YeFi.one platform, a team of blockchain entrepreneurs, the future founders, had been living the DeFi revolution, learning its valuable lessons and nurturing an idea of creating a project that would one day combine all the essential decentralized finance functions while eliminating its shortfalls and mistakes of the past.

The founders had also recognized the value of decentralized data storage and computing projects like Filecoin, Swarm, Chia, and Dfinity. That is how the idea to collaborate and promote these projects have emerged.

Ishan Pandey: The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States has filed its first complaint related to the expanding decentralized finance sector, charging that a corporation traded digital tokens that ought to have been registered with the Wall Street regulator. From a regulatory standpoint, what measures should be introduced so as to induce a better system wherein full and honest disclosure is mandated and practiced?

Pekka Kelkka: We have the best crypto lawyers following closely what’s happening not just in the USA cryptos’ regulatory scene but globally. Unfortunately, at this stage, we do not welcome US investors on our platform.

The bottom line is that the global blockchain and crypto community needs to collaborate with the regulators. We must increase regulators’ and lawmakers’ understanding of blockchain and cryptos. I’m positive that we will find a common ground.

Blockchain and cryptos will be the biggest change in the global financial and monetary system in centuries and Defi will lead the way. Also, governments and central banks will benefit from the fastest, most cost-efficient, and secure decentralized financial services.

As we know commercial banks are already in the game. A big Switzerland bank Sygnum is already offering DeFi services to its investor customers. All the other banks must follow if they want to continue their business.

Ishan Pandey: Elrond recently stated that it has become carbon negative, as the cryptocurrency sector shifts to more environmentally friendly ideas to reduce its carbon footprint. What are your thoughts on the detrimental environmental impact of cryptos and can we gradually shift towards a more eco-friendly system?

Pekka Kelkka: This is a development led by Elrond. I see that the blockchain and crypto industry can lead the way also on th e carbon negative production front. Blockchain and cryptos can become the greenest business sector which others will follow!

Ishan Pandey: After a big Ethereum upgrade, Bitcoin and Ether hit their best values in more than nearly two months, despite concerns surrounding crypto restrictions in the US infrastructure plan. Do you believe this uptrend is here to stay or will we soon hit a low in the crypto market?

Pekka Kelkka: We are on the second wave of this bull run. It will still last months. We will hit ATHs quite soon. The bear market will come. Not 70-90% cut this time but less. Still, these are my personal opinions. No financial advice.

Ishan Pandey: Biden’s huge bipartisan infrastructure project struck a rare chord of bipartisan collaboration between Republicans and Democrats, but the bill is being held up due to proposed changes to cryptocurrency regulation in the US. What does the future look like for cryptocurrencies in the United States?

Pekka Kelkka: Should we be worried? In the end, I believe that US lawmakers will understand that blockchain and cryptos will lead the technology development in the world, just as the internet has done since early 2000. The biggest problem is the US politicians who are funded by the US banks and financial institutions. They will fight back but they will give up. Common sense will win… also in the USA.

Ishan Pandey: The biggest significant enhancement to the Ethereum blockchain since 2015, according to Ethereum developer Vitalik Buterin, came into force just recently, and the network is well-positioned to make an even bigger improvement to reduce its energy usage by 99 percent. Can you elaborate on this new improvement and what its implications are for the Ethereum ecosystem?

Pekka Kelkka: How many hours do we have? :-)

Let me start first by saying this:

Ethereum will be the biggest game-changer in the global business. It will be “the global computer”. It will be bigger than AWS, Azure, and Google combined”.

Ethereum’s biggest change on the recent EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) 1559 was the change on “the economical model” which will make ETH deflationary in the longer run.

Since EIP1559 the base fee amount of ETH is “burned” on every transaction i.e. on every transaction some ETH tokens will be removed from the market circulation.

When transactions on Ethereum will explode - as expected - more ETH will be “burned” than produced (mined). Demand for ETH will become much higher than supply.

What do you think will happen to the ETH price?

But “the money-making machine” of ETH is just a side product. Most importantly Ethereum will become the world computer as I mentioned earlier.

Even more remarkable changes will occur when ETH2.0 will be launched possibly before the end of the year. The major feature of ETH 2.0. Will be “Sharding”. The Ethereum network will be used much more economically which will reduce the price of the transactions as well as speed up them dramatically.

This will also reduce the energy usage a lot on the Ethereum network.

Ishan Pandey: What new trends are we going to witness within the crypto ecosystem especially in the post-covid-19 era?

Pekka Kelkka: The whole blockchain and crypto scene will explode - watch out mainstream, here we come!

Disclaimer: The purpose of this article is to remove informational asymmetry existing today in our digital markets by performing due diligence by asking the right questions and equipping readers with better opinions to make informed decisions. The material does not constitute any investment, financial, or legal advice. Please do your research before investing in any digital assets or tokens, etc. The writer does not have any vested interest in the company. Ishan Pandey.

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NFTs, DeFi Boost for Ethereum Dims Clamor of Bitcoin Maximalists

(Bloomberg) – Surging demand for NFTs and DeFi apps is allowing backers of Ethereum to dampen the cacophony of Bitcoin maximalists who have long claimed that only the original cryptocurrency matters.

Ether, the native token of the most-used blockchain, jumped 36% in August, more than double the 13% return for holders of the biggest digital asset by market value during the same period. So far this year, Ether is outperforming Bitcoin by the widest margin going back to at least 2018, Bloomberg data show.

The Ethereum “community has taken up that mantle to a much louder degree and that sort of blockchain development is really having a bullish moment in crypto right now,” said Stephane Ouellette, chief executive and co-founder of FRNT Financial.

Many analysts had projected that Ether would rally following a major software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain in August. The enhancement, code-named London, trims the pace at which the supply of Ether tokens grows.

Ahead of the upgrade, many investors argued the reduction of the coin’s supply could result in higher prices due to increased scarcity. Others also said the supply could drop further once Ethereum moves to a different mechanism of verifying transactions, something that could happen in the first quarter of next year. This new verification system will use computers supporting the Ethereum network to stake Ether coins instead of miners in most cases.

“The innovation at play in the smart-contract arena had been defeating maximalist mantras for quite some time,” said Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics. Still, because a lot of the advancements – particularly in DeFi and NFTs –are so new, it’s difficult to say exactly how much more growth there will be or what other new sectors might arise, he said.

The case for Ether surpassing Bitcoin has been been a constant theme in crypto since the alternative blockchain was created. Bitcoin maximalists maintain that it remains the purest form of digital money and point out that the original cryptocurrency has a market value of about $900 billion, or more than double that of Ether.

Story continues

August marked Ether’s second consecutive monthly advance and its best monthly performance since April. The coin is up more than 350% this year, compared with Bitcoin’s 60% gain. On Wednesday, it rose about 5% to $3,558 while Bitcoin gained around 1% to $47,400.

“Ethereum is seen as a better store of value – that’s why it has been preferred by institutions for a while now,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co. “It is now becoming preferred among all investors.”

And it’s not just Ether that’s been in the limelight recently, said Ouellette. Solana and Cardano represent projects with a similar focus and both have rallied.

Among analysts and investors, there’s little consensus as to what’s driving parts of the frenzy for smaller or alternative coins. Some posit that speculators are moving from the mainstays to newer, more exciting offshoots, as they often do after big runs. Others see a world awash in cash and ultra-low rates, which ultimately pushes investors toward ever-wonkier assets.

Wilfred Daye, chief executive officer of Enigma Securities, said Ethereum is the fabric of the tokenized economy and it has a deeply rooted and solidified programmer community. From a trading perspective, “ETH has higher volatility than Bitcoin and similar liquidity profile as Bitcoin,” he said. But, “in the long run, ETH has a real chance of outperforming.”

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How Ethereum’s Next Big Upgrade Could Boost Its Value

Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH)- the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, and the most popular smart contract and decentralized application network – just changed the way it pays the people who maintain its network, in ways that could make it an even more appealing investment. When the next major evolution in its upgrade roadmap occurs, this change could reduce its supply and increase its value. That might be great news for investors seeking to hedge against inflation.

How Ethereum’s changing its network

Since Aug. 5, a portion of the fees paid by users of Ethereum’s network, which used to go toward making new coins with which to pay miners, has instead been burnt or destroyed. A total of 177,424 ETH, worth around $672 million at the time of writing, has been taken out of circulation since the upgrade, leaving 117.3 million tokens in circulation according to CoinMarketCap. By taking coins out of circulation, this change could make each existing coin more valuable.

Ethereum is currently produced by miners under a proof-of-work consensus mechanism that consumes a lot of energy, just like Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) production. It has a variable annual inflation rate of around 2.8% at the moment – but it’ll issue fewer new coins when it upgrades its network to a staking-based consensus.

Instead of solving tough math problems to keep the network running smoothly – and getting rewarded for it – Ethereum holders will be able to do the same things by storing away, or staking, some or all of their tokens. Around 6.2% of the circulating supply, or 7.4 million ETH tokens worth an estimated $28 billion, have already been staked. That staked ETH is currently earning an annual percentage yield of 5.8%, way more than any bank.

Once Ethereum’s major upgrade occurs sometime in late 2021 or early 2022, one simulation estimates that the circulating supply of Ethereum could shrink by around 1.4% each year at current rates of fee burning. In theory, that might reduce the value of each token by an equal proportion. This means that the circulating supply of the asset will shrink.

Ethereum has way more use cases

Bitcoin is currently viewed as a store of value, or a safe haven asset to hedge against inflationary fiat currencies. But Ethereum is more of an economy – a fledgling financial landscape for the internet.

Aside from staking, Ethereum is also the foundation for decentralized finance protocols, many of which are based on Ethereum and its smart contracts. These smart contracts, which run on the blockchain and execute when predetermined conditions are met, are also used to build decentralized applications (dApps).

Investors currently have 7.7 million ETH, or $29 billion, locked up in DeFi protocols for token swapping, yield farming, or liquidity mining. This is where token holders can provide collateral in crypto assets to earn more crypto assets.

Ethereum is also the standard for the majority of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which have been booming in sales this year. NFTs are unique tokens on the blockchain that prove ownership; they can represent art, music, gaming items, avatars, and even real estate.

Additionally, Ethereum is the base layer for stablecoins – digital assets pegged to a fiat currency. Around half of the world’s most popular stablecoin, Tether (CRYPTO:USDT), is based on the Ethereum standard, with $34 billion worth residing on the network.

There’s just one drawback to Ethereum’s current popularity: Rising demand has inflated network fees, with the average transaction now costing $40. The currency’s upcoming upgrade includes other improvements designed to lower those fees and speed up transactions, but for now, the higher fees make it harder for people and other apps to actually use Ethereum.

Why big banks are buying in

Ethereum’s strengths compared to Bitcoin have driven Ethereum prices 400% higher since the beginning of 2021, compared to just 70% for Bitcoin.

Major institutions such as Grayscale have taken notice, and they’re loading up on ETH. Institutional funds offer wealthy clients exposure to the asset without requiring them to hold it, and Grayscale currently holds $10 billion worth of ETH in its Ethereum Trust (OTC:ETHE).

Even some of the big Wall Street banks have leaned bullish on Ethereum. In July, analysts at investment bank Goldman Sachs said that Ethereum’s real use cases give it the potential to become the dominant digital store of value in the coming years.

The network may also be viewed as a more environmentally friendly investment when it moves away from mining, which looks good to eco-conscious corporations.

Coupled with the prospect of supply deflation, these factors could drive an uptick in demand and prices. That trend might only grow stronger if the COVID-19 pandemic spurs inflation and currency devaluations on a global scale.

Increased regulation in the U.S., such as the controversial crypto tax reporting bill, could stifle innovation and mainstream Ethereum adoption in the short term. There is also the threat of faster rival blockchains such as Cardano or Polkadot becoming the de facto standard for smart contracts, DeFi, and dApps.

These networks have gained traction recently as the crypto ecosystem expands, but Ethereum has already cemented itself as the industry standard, just as IBM did with computing in the early 1980s. With so many platforms already running on Ethereum, and it having the largest support and developer community, it will be no mean feat to knock the network off its perch.

With this in mind, now might not be a bad time to buy and hold Ethereum for at least couple of years.