New Delhi: Ether is aiming high. It seeks to do much better and in the process of going to the next level, the cryptocurrency has promised to edge out its rivals and even outshine Bitcoin, the godfather in the cryptocurrency universe. However, time is running out.
Ether, which is only second to Bitcoin in terms of market capitalisation and No. 2 cryptocurrency in the block, was supposed to be weeks away from the ‘merge’.
According to a report in Reuters, Ether will go for a transformative upgrade of its blockchain Ethereum in June. This will make it faster, cheaper and less power hungry. Thus becoming a meaner and cleaner crypto future.
The momentum is also with Ether as the anticipation had supported the cryptocurrency this year as disruption such as inflation and monetary tightening shackled Bitcoin. However, the merge is witnessing delay, causing frustration among investors.
The merge would see ether mining transition away from the energy-intensive proof-of-work method to proof-of-stake.
Brendan Playford, founder and CEO of decentralised financial data platform Masa Finance, said, "The timeline for seeing this launch continues to extend,” while adding, “It's certainly plausible that Ethereum's highly anticipated upgrade to a proof-of-stake system could be delayed again given that this transition is highly complicated and still uncertain as to whether it can actually deliver on its promise of lowering costs and increasing transaction speeds.”
On April 11, Ether sank 8 per cent from $3,215 to $2,947. On that day Ethereum lead developer Tim Beiko on Twitter said that the June roll-out had been pushed back as tests continued. Ether went down 13 per cent to $2,844 this month.
Beiko, in his tweet said, “It won’t be June, but likely in the few months after. No firm date yet, but we're definitely in the final chapter.”
According to many crypto experts, the timing of the merge, Ethereum's EH1 chain will meld with a new chain to create ETH2, remains unclear. While some crypto watchers said that the merger may happen sometime this year.
The market capitalisation of Ether is $363 billion, which is less than half Bitcoin’s. The two combined make up around 60 per cent of the global crypto market.
Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis Trading, said, “We are seeing funds rotate into Ethereum in preparation for the merge, even though we don't know when it's going to be.”
She said, “The buying interest did hint that more funds seem to be appreciating that (Ethereum) is perhaps undervalued at this stage”.
According to the report, both Ether and Bitcoin are mined, or produced, using a proof-of-work (POW) method where thousands of miners, or network nodes, compete to solve complex mathematical puzzles.