Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, fraud or third party interference.
Ethereum is how the Internet was supposed to work: it’s a censorship-proof planetary scale computer, where users always stay in control of their funds and personal data.
Ethereum was crowdfunded during August 2014 by fans all around the world. It is developed by ETH/DEV with contributions from great minds across the globe.
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Cryptocurrencies In Web3: Metaverse, NFTs, and More
Tl;dr Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are revolutionising how we interact with the Internet, and they’re opening doors to a new era of the Internet: Web3. Even though Web3 is still in its infancy, many big corporations and even countries are already investing in it. Here, we are about to dive into the rabbit hole of Metaverse and NFTs and discuss how they’ll change the future of many industries through cryptocurrencies!
What Is Web3?
Web3, or Web 3.0, is the next Internet era where decentralisation will play a key role. It is essentially an improvement to Web2, the current stage of the Internet. The other two eras of the Internet are as follows:
- Web1: This era started in 1991 and continued until around 2004. In Web1, webpages and the Internet, in general, were just a collection of static and non-interactive. There was no back and forth transformation of data between users and the Internet. In web1, the Internet was like a giant library, nothing more.
- Web2: Web2 started in 2004 and is seeing its last days. In Web2, the Internet became interactive, and not only did users get information from the web, but also the web received information from users. This phenomenon can especially be seen in personalised advertisements. During this era, the Internet became highly smart but brought about two major problems: censorship of content and lack of privacy.
How Does Web3 Enable Decentralisation?
In Web3, censorship of data in social networks wouldn’t be possible, and you get to be the true owner of the content you produce. No centralised authority can shut down a political post or movement on Web3. Also, selling user data to corporations would become extremely difficult without getting users’ permission first. This allows users to take back control over their digital identity and activity. Moreover, it is estimated that there would be a point in Web3 where companies are run by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). To perform all this magic, Web3 utilises decentralised tools, the main tool being blockchain technology.
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Blockchain technology works through cryptographic hash functions. Don’t let the name scare you off; we’ve made it easy as a piece of cotton candy! Let’s break it down.
A blockchain is literally a “chain of blocks”. Each block is a collection of data at its core. This data can be anything, from a collection of records and a list of transactions to smart contracts. However, blocks can’t carry unlimited data, and once they’re full, they need to be added to the system to create more blocks. In the case of the Bitcoin blockchain, each block can store around 1500 transaction records. The blocks need to be verified before they can be added to the system to ensure everything is right, the data is valid, and no fraudulent activities are going on. This process of verifying blocks is also called mining.
What Is Mining and Proof of Work?
Mining blocks or verifying them is done by finding a block’s key, i.e., its hash. Every blockchain has a hash function implemented in it, which is essentially a system where you give it an input, and it produces an output. Each block requires a particular output to get solved. You may ask: “How can I find a block’s input?” There is only one way: guessing! In fact, what miners do is they guess many inputs to get the desired output. The hash function system requires massive computing power, so miners receive rewards for their hard work and effort. In the case of the Bitcoin blockchain, miners earn Bitcoins as rewards. The hash function is mainly used for the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, where the miners “prove” to the network that a certain amount of work or energy has been exploited. Let’s dig a bit deeper!
How Does Proof of Stake Solve The Issues of Proof of Work Mechanism?
Proof-of-Work, or PoW, is an extremely energy-consuming consensus mechanism. It is essentially like a race, with only one winner, and all the efforts of the other racers will be lost. To increase the opportunity to win for other participants and provide more chances, other blockchains have developed alternative consensus mechanisms, which are more efficient and eco-friendly. The most popular alternative to the Proof-of-Work mechanism is the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). In PoS, miners don’t race simultaneously; instead, one miner is chosen at a time to solve a block and earn rewards. This is done by locking up assets so that your assets can do the mining for you. Blockchain technology isn’t limited to just minings and rewards; some blockchains also support smart contracts.
Why Are Smart Contracts Important?
A smart contract is a type of digital contract that gets triggered to do specific actions after certain conditions are met. A smart contract’s conditions are all programmed before its launch on the blockchain. Once a smart contract is on a blockchain, its code cannot be changed or cannot be shut down. Most smart contracts are written on the Ethereum blockchain with the Solidity language. However, some blockchains - including Bitcoin - cannot handle smart contracts. Smart contracts are the basis upon which dApps (decentralised apps) are written. There are infinite possibilities to what smart contracts can perform: DeFi apps, NFTs, the Metaverse, GameFi, and DEXs all exist thanks to smart contracts.
What Is Metaverse?
A Metaverse, simply defined, is a virtual reality world. Once in the Metaverse, you can play the game of life! You can explore, interact with people and objects, teleport, and even own digital assets. Similar to how we have multiple planets or “worlds”, there are numerous Metaverses which you get to choose to enter. Don’t confuse Metaverse with Facebook's recent rebranding to Meta; there are multiple Metaverses, and Facebook's Metaverse is only one of them. There are two main types of Metaverses:
- Centralised Metaverse: Some Metaverses are owned by corporations and companies, like Facebook’s Metaverse and Microsoft’s upcoming Metaverse.
- Decentralised Metaverse: These Metaverses were built using blockchain technology. More specifically, they are built on smart contract-friendly blockchains. Decentralised Metaverses, as suggested by the name, are not centralised, i.e., are not owned by a single company.
How To Enter Metaverse?
You can enter a Metaverse with simple devices like your personal computer or a pair of virtual reality headsets.
Why Should I Use Metaverse?
The Metaverse can create infinite possibilities for us, which revolve around one certain factor: convenience. An example of areas where the Metaverse can facilitate our lives is teleportation. Users can instantly teleport to different lands in Metaverse, and in future, they will be able to teleport as a hologram to different places. There are also various business opportunities in the Metaverse like the following:
- Online Events
- Trading Lands
- Metaverse Architecture
- Travelling
- Renting Lands
- Game Development
- Entrepreneurship
- Purchasing in Online Marketplaces
- Owning Digital Assets in the Metaverse aka NFTs
What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?
NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a digital proof of ownership. You may ask, ownership of what asset? The answer is everything! You can own any form of NFTs, from JPEGs and tweets to real-world assets like seaweeds! At its heart, an NFT is a digital collectable or asset hosted on a blockchain. Most NFTs are hosted on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-721 standard tokens. NFTs are also available on other smart contract-compatible blockchains, such as Solana and Zilliqa. You can mint (create) or purchase NFTs from a built-in NFT marketplace in a Metaverse or other independent and exclusive marketplaces. Some of the most popular NFT marketplaces are:
- OpenSea: Various formats of NFTs are available on OpenSea, such as music, Metaverse lands, and even AI-generated profile pictures! You can purchase NFTs with more than 150 cryptocurrencies on OpenSea.
- Foundation: This platform has made bidding on NFTs easy and beginner-friendly. NFTs on Foundation is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain.
- Rarible: This marketplace is also on Ethereum and is one of the most popular NFT marketplaces amongst NFT artists.
Web3 Is Still Too Young!
All the topics discussed in this post give us a clear idea of what Web3 will look like. With the help of cryptocurrencies and cryptography, Web3 will bring true decentralisation to the Internet and bring to life the ideas so big only seen in futuristic sci-fi movies. There lie so many potentials in Web3, and it can change the future of many multi-million industries, such as finance, gaming, supply chain, healthcare, etc. However, web3 is still in its infancy stages! You have many opportunities to contribute to and participate in Web3 to be one of the very early folks. Cryptologi.st ensures you stay updated on crypto news and provides crypto project overviews and ultimate guides. You can also use professional investment tools, all for free. Enjoy the future now!
Ethereum price has passed $160 for the second time this year
The crypto market is doing its best to recover after the bear market that has hit the entire industry last summer. Since Ethereum reached $166 in February 21, its price dropped and stabilized around $122 for the past month. However, today has started good for Ethereum, as it has climbed all the way to $161, rolling back to $156 and trying to consolidate its place there.
[caption id="attachment_3098" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Ethereum price, April 2, 2019[/caption]The price of Ethereum is expected to continue to rise in the next quarter, especially due to the increase of volume and interest in the mass crypto adoption. The next step for Ethereum is to consolidate its rate on the corridor between $150 and $155 in order to rise back to $160 and above.
Ethereum at 12 Month Fresh Lows; How Far Can This Market Drop?
The troubles continue for Ethereum over the past 24 hours as the cryptocurrency drops a further 3.89%. Ethereum is currently exchanging hands at a price of $192 after the cryptocurrency suffers a dramatic 33% price drop over the past 7 trading days.
The decentralised operating system, designed for developers to create dapps (decentralised apps) upon has struggled to maintain any form of support over the past few months.
Speculators are beginning to worry about how long this price drop could continue for as there seems to be no end in sight.To add further to these worries, Vitalik Buterin, teh founder and creator of Ethereum, has recently been quoted saying that the cryptocurrency space will no longer see 1000x growth ever Asians. He assumes that enough people know about cryptocurrency technology so we will never see that form of rapid growth every again. We must not interpret this as him saying there is no space for growth as there is still plenty room, however, these recent comments have caused speculators confidence to fall lower as price action reflects the sentiment within the market.
The market is so low that, if it does continue even lower, miners will need to switch off of their mining rigs as the cost of electricity will outweigh the cost of each Ethereum mined causing it to become unprofitable.
Despite these worrying times, Ethereum still holds the second ranked place in the industry in terms of overall market cap value. Ethereum currently has a total market cap value of $19.60 billion after the 37 month old coin suffers a 41% price drop over the past 30 trading days. To put the price drop into perspective, Ethereum is a total of 86% down from it's all time high price.
Let us continue to analyse price action for Ethereum over the short term and update our expected support and resistance areas.
Price Analysis
ETH/USD - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART
Analysing the market from the short term perspective above, we can see that the market had broken through our previous symmetrical triangle highlighted in our previous technical analysis article.
In fact, price action continued to drop significantly lower through all of our expected support levels to where it is currently trading at a price of $191. Price action has penetrated below September 2017’s price low of $197 and is now trading at over 12 month fresh lows.
We can see that the market has recently found support at a short term downside 1.272 Fibonacci Extension level priced at $181.88. The market is now currently battling at resistance marked by September 2017’s price low at $197.
If the bearish price pressure continues to grow, we expect immediate support to be located at the short term downside 1.272 Fibonacci Extension priced at $181. Further support below this can be expected at the psychological round number handles of $175, $170, $165 and $160. The final area of support we would like to highlight if the market continues further lower is located at the downside 1.414 Fibonacci Extension level priced at $148.47.
Alternatively, if the bulls can regather some momentum at this price level and break above September 2017’s resistance of $197, we expect immediate further resistance to be located at the previous long term 1.414 Fibonacci Extension level priced at $226.
Further significant support above this level can then be expected at the downside 1.618 Fibonacci Extension level (drawn in blue) priced at $271. We can see that this level has provided significant support for the market during August 2018 so this will now be expected to provide significant resistance. Further resistance above this level will then be expected at the long term downward sloping trend line drawn in black.
The technical indicators within the market are heavily favouring the bears at this moment in time. The RSI indicator has dropped far below the 50 handle to trade at oversold conditions. If the RSI can make its way back toward the 50 handle we may see this market find some stability. For the potential to see some gains within the market we must see the RSI breaking above the 50 handle into positive momentum territory.
Let us continue to quickly analyse price action relative to Bitcoin over the short term and highlight any potential support and resistance areas.
ETH/BTC - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART
Analysing the market from the short termed perspective above, we can see over the past two months price action has declined significantly falling below expected support levels at 0.0407 SATS and 0.03634 SATS to find support at where it is currently trading at the downside 1.618 Fibonacci Extension level priced at 0.02996 SATS.
If the bulls can regather momentum at this area of support and push the market higher, we expect immediate resistance to be located at the previous .886 Fibonacci Retracement level priced at 0.03502 SATS. Further expected resistance above this level can then be located at the previous downside 1.272 Fibonacci Extension level priced at 0.04078 SATS.
Alternatively, if the bears manage to push price action below the support at 0.029963 SATS then we can expect immediate support to be located at a further downside 1.618 Fibonacci Extension level (drawn in purple) priced at 0.028029 SATS.
The technical indicators are in the favour of the bears at this current moment in time. The RSI is currently well below the 50 handle trading at oversold conditions. More worrying, however, may be the fact that the RSI has not been able to break above the 50 level within this market for over an extended period of 3 months. If we are to see any positive momentum within this market it is crucial that the RSI breaks back above the 50 handle to continue further higher.
Ethereum continues to approach the apex of a long term symmetrical triangle
The decentralised application platform, Ethereum, has seen a small 0.16% drop over the past 24 hours. This could be considered as good news and a sign that the bearish momentum is slowing downs as Ethereum drops over 13% over the past 30 trading days. Ethereum is currently exchanging hands at around $406.47, at the time of writing and has seen an 11% price drop over the past 7 trading days.
Ethereum was created by the young genius mind of Vitalik Buterin on July 30th 2015 and was created to become a platform where developers can come and create decentralised apps without the need for the middle men. It is important to distinguish Ether (the cryptocurrency) and the Ethereum network. The Ethereum network is much more than just a regular cryptocurrency. It is a protocol, an advancement in crypto that allows developers to run their applications directly on the blockchain.
Ether is the cryptocurrency behind the Ethereum Network. It is the currency that helps facilitate the functioning of the Ethereum Network.
Ethereum investors are looking forward to a scalability upgrade of the Ethereum network. Currency Ethereum can only handle between 20-25 transactions per second. This is more than triple the 7 transactions per second that Bitcoin can handle but is far far away from what the network needs to be at.
Solutions to the scalability of Ethereum have been proposed and many are under development and testing. The plasma network and Sharding is one proposal, that will batch all transactions into smaller ‘Shards’ which will make it easier for the transactions to be processed.
Another proposed solution is known as the Raiden network. This is similar to the Lightning Network for Bitcoin. It is an off-chain solution where the majority of transactions are handled off the blockchain through direct peer-to-peer payment channels opened between parties. This should take the majority of small transactions off the main chain resulting in less congestion.
Ethereum is still ranked at second place in terms of overall market cap across the entire cryptocurrency industry. It has a total market cap value of $41 billion.
Let us continue to analyse price action for Ethereum over the short term.
Price Analysis
ETH/USD - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART
Analysing the market from the short term perspective above, we can see that Ethereum had experienced a bullish run during April when price action started from a low of $358 on the 1st of April 2018 and continued to rise until it reached a high at $838 on the 6th of May 2018. This was a price increase totalling 135% from low to high.
The market could not sustain this level and proceeded to roll over during May. It is important to point out that the high experienced in May correlated directly with the upper boundary of a long term symmetrical triangle.
We can see that the market initially had found support at the .618 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $542 in May, drawn in black. This is a short term Fibonacci Retracement measured from the entire bullish run aforementioned.
The market continued to drop throughout June and July until a significant level of support was found at the long term .886 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $413. The area was also significantly bolstered by the short term .886 Fibonacci Retracement which is priced in exactly the same area.
We also can notice that, during the initial stages of August, price action for Ethereum has found support directly at the lower boundary of the symmetrical triangle, slightly below the .886 Fibonacci Retracement.
The market is vastly approaching the apex of this symmetrical triangle, where a serious break out to either the downside or the upside is expected. Usually in falling markets symmetrical triangles resolve themselves to the prevailing trend, in this case we are in a bearish downtrend. However, the crypto markets are extremely irrational so we do not rule out an upside break. All we can do is monitor the market and make our trading decisions based off of the direction that price action dictates to us.
If the lower boundary of the symmetrical triangle can provide significant support, we expect the market to rebound from this point and make its way to the upper boundary of the symmetrical triangle. The market will require significant momentum to break above it but if it does, we expect immediate resistance to be located at the short term .786 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $461. Resistance following this area is expected at the 100 day moving average which is currently hovering at the $520.
Alternatively, if the market does break below the symmetrical triangles lower boundary, we expect immediate support to be located at Aprils price low at $358.
The technical indicators, at this moment in time, are heavily favouring the bears. The RSI is well below the 50 handle indicating that the bears are still predominantly in control. If we are to see a bullish run, we need to see the RSI make its way back above the 50 handle and continue to rise.
Let us quickly analyse the market relative to Bitcoin over the short term.
ETH/BTC - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART
Analysing the market relative to Bitcoin, we can see that Ethereum had experienced a price surge totalling 60% when the market rose from a low of 0.05359 on the 4th of April 2018 and extended to a high of 0.083851 on the 20th of May 2018.
The market had met resistance at a falling trend line and rolled over. Initially we can see support was found at the .382 Fibonacci Retracement priced at 0.07348 during May. This is a Fibonacci Retracement measured from the entire bullish run highlighted above.
The market continued to fall during June, falling below the 100 day moving average to find support at the .5 Fibonacci Retracement priced at 0.069688. However, the market could not hold above this level and fell further during July. It eventually completed a 100% retracement, recently completing at the lows seen during April. This completion has caused the market to form a descending wedge/triangle. We can see that price action has seen a rebound from this low.
If the bullish pressure can build and continue, we expect immediate resistance to be located at the long term .618 Fibonacci Retracement (drawn in red) priced at 0.061644 followed by the short term .618 Fibonacci Retracement priced at 0.067896. Resistance above this area will be located at the 100 day moving average followed by the downward slope of the falling wedge.
The RSI is currently trading at the 50 handle indicating the indecision currently within the market. For the market to continue to rise we need to see the RSI stay above the 50 handle and continue to rise.
Ethereum Price Analysis: Ethereum Finds Support at Long Term .886 Fibonacci Retracement Level
Ethereum, ETH, has enjoyed a relatively bullish week this week as the market trades 7.95% higher than that of 7 trading days ago. Ethereum is currently trading hands at a value of $466.86, at the time of writing.
Developed by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum was created to become a decentralised platform for decentralised apps (dapps) to run upon. The crypto community has taken very kindly to Ethereum with many of the top 50 ranked market cap coins choosing to use Ethereum as their blockchain, insuring their coins as ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network.
Ethereum has recently come under fire when a decentralised application known as CryptoKitties blocked up the Ethereum blockchain, at one point creating backlogs for days. Some of the ERC-20 token projects originally issued on the Ethereum blockchain have recently migrated away to their own blockchains, boasting superior transaction speeds into the thousands of transactions per second, far above the 25 transactions per second that Ethereum can currently handle. However, Vitalik has recently addressed potentially upgrades to the Ethereum network that would allow for more transactions per second.
The crypto giant is currently ranked 2nd in terms of overall market cap across the entire industry, with a total market cap value of $46.92 billion, at the time of writing. This is $14.47 billion below the market cap high of $61.39 billion seen 30 days ago on June 7th as indicated by the graph below.
Let us continue to analyse price action over the course of the year for Ethereum.Price Analysis
ETH/USD - LONG TERM - DAILY CHART
Analysing price action over the long term, we can see that Ethereum had experienced a bullish run starting from a low of $275.21 on the 2nd of November 2017, extending all the way to $1424.30 experienced on the 18th of January 2018. This was a 400% price increase from low to high.
Since placing this all time high, price action depreciated until placing a yearly low at $358 on April 1st. This low correlated close to the .886 Fibonacci Retracement level priced at $412. This is a Fibonacci Retracement taken from the entire bullish run outline above.
We can see that throughout the majority of the trading year, price action has largely been contained within the boundary of a very broad, loose, symmetrical triangle. Price action has recently rebounded from the lower boundary of the symmetrical triangle. The triangle is expected to resolve itself at some point during July.
Price action has recently toward the end of June, once again, found support at the .886 Fibonacci Retracement where the market rebounded aggressively. The nearest area of resistance is located at the .786 Fibonacci Retracement level located at $527.86. If the market can break above this level then further resistance can be located at $600, close to June’s monthly high.
Alternatively, if the market rolls over once again, then immediate support can be located at the lower boundary of the descending triangle, followed by the .886 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $412.
Let us continue to analyse price action over the more recent period a little closer.
ETH/USD - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART
Analysing price action from a closer perspective, we can see that the market had experienced a bullish run during the month of April rising from the yearly low of $358 seen on April 1st and extending to a high of $838, experienced on the 6th of May. This was a respectable price increase of 135%.
We can see that after placing this high, price action went on to fall, funding support initially at the short term .618 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $524 in May. This is a Fibonacci Retracement taken from the bullish run seen during April.
Price action continued to fall further during June, falling below the short term .786 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $461.66 to find strong support at the short term .886 Fibonacci Retracement at a price of $413.48. It is important to note that this area of support is bolstered by the long term .886 Fibonacci Retracement, marked in red, at the same area.
The recent bullish momentum during the start of the month has pushed Ethereum back above the .786 Fibonacci Retracement where it is currently resting at the support level of $461. If the bullish momentum can increase and push the market further, initial resistance comes in at the the long term .786 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $527. Further resistance beyond this level comes in at the short term .5 and .382 Fibonacci Retracements at price levels of $599 and $656 respectively.
The technical indicators are starting to lean toward the direction that favours the bullish argument. The RSI momentum indicator is currently involved with a battle at the 50 handle. The past three times that RSI tried to penetrate above the 50 handle the market failed to do so. If the bullish momentum is strong enough to break above the 50 handle, this would indicate that a bullish trend is likely to form.
To add further to this, the moving averages have started to flatten out, trading in a more sideways direction. If the 7 day EMA moving average (blue line) can cross up above the 21 day EMA moving average, this would signal a bullish crossover to the bulls within the market and the bullish pressure should start to increase.
CONCLUSION
Ethereum has had a tough month falling by a total of 23.32% over the past 30 trading days. The market cap has some significant losses to regain over the next month for investors to turn bullish again in the long term.
With Buterin stating that upgrades should be looming on the horizon for Ethereum’s network to improve the transaction speed per second, investors are likely to start buying up the market once again as these upgrades edge closer.
Ethereum Experiences Small Rebound After A Month Of Depreciating Prices
Ethereum has experienced a slight rebound this week rising 18% from the monthly low of $450 seen on the 13th of June. Ethereum is currently trading hands at $531 per token with a 3.90% price increase from 24 hours ago.
This rebound comes after a tough 30 days for Ethereum as prices drop a total of 23% over the trading period. Price action was trading well below the monthly high seen at $628 early during June.
This recent Ethereum bounce comes off the back of an announcement made by the SEC (Securities and Exchanges Commission) that Bitcoin and Ethereum will not be regarded as securities. This opens the route for a potential for futures trading to eventually be enabled for ETH as has already been seen with Bitcoin.
Let us analyse price action for Ethereum against the USD over the long term.
Price Analysis
ETH/USD - LONG TERM - DAILY CHART
Looking a price from a long term perspective, we can see that the market has been trading for the majority of the year within the confines of a loose symmetrical triangle.
Ethereum had experienced a significant price increase from November 2017 to January 2018, as prices rose from a low of of $293 to an all time high placed on January 13th at a price of $1424.
Since this all time high price action has depreciated and had retraced just past the .886 Fibonacci Retracement priced at $412 in April. This is a Fibonacci Retracement taken from the bullish run seen from November to January. Price action then went on to make another bullish run during April as price rose to +$800.
During May price action began to depreciate and has fallen just past the .786 Fibonacci Retracement at a price of $527. Price is currently finding resistance at this .786 retracement level.
If price action can break and hold above $527 it is clear then to test the upper boundary of the long term triangle which should also coincides with the major $600 psychological level. A break of the triangle should take Ethereum past the current monthly highs placed at $628.
Alternatively, if price action fails to break above the .786 Fibonacci Retracement then we could see price action falling toward the lower boundary of the symmetrical triangle.
Let us examine price action a little closer over the more recent period.
ETH/USD - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHARTS
Examining the market from a closer distance, we can see that price action has recently, on the 13th of June, found support at the short term .786 Fibonacci Retracement level at a price of $461 (marked in black). This is a short term retracement of the bullish run seen during the month of April.
Price action has since bounced and currently has found resistance at the .618 Fibonacci Retracement at a price level of $542. This area of resistance if also strongly reinforced by the long term .786 Fibonacci Retracement located at $527.
If price action can break and hold above the $542 price handle, we could expect the bulls to make a push at the upper boundary of the triangle whilst also meeting resistance at $600. This $600 price handle also has strong resistance due to the .50 Fibonacci Retracement being located at $599.
Following a break of $600, Ethereum is then free to tackle further resistance located at the .382 Fibonacci Retracement level priced at $656.
Alternatively, if the resistance from the short term .618 Fibonacci Retracement proves too strong for the bulls, the market could roll over and head toward the .786 Fibonacci Retracement at $461, once again.
The technical indicators are beginning to show promising signs for the bulls within the market. The RSI has battled its way from oversold conditions to the 50 handle where it currently meets some resistance. If RSI can break above 50, this would indicate that the bullish momentum within the market is beginning to increase.
To add to this, the 7 day EMA (blue line) has recently turned around is pointing in the upward direction. If this moving average can then go on to cross above the 21 day EMA (purple line) this would indicate that the bullish momentum is considerably growing within the market.
Let us examine how Ethereum has been trading against Bitcoin over the course of the past trading year.
ETH/BTC. - LONG TERM - DAILY CHART
Looking at the chart above, we can see that Ethereum has been struggling over the course of this year against Bitcoin. Price is down by 35% from the all time high placed on February 1st at a price of 0.1230 as it currently trades hands at 0.07920.
We can see that after the all time high, price action depreciated all the way past the .618 Fibonacci Retracement of the bullish move, at a price of 0.06164. Since this low price action has rebounded and is currently trading above the .50 Fibonacci Retracement at 0.073362.
We can also notice that price action has recently broken above a long term downward trend line over the past 24 hours which we will examine a little more closely below.
ETH/BTC - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHARTS
Looking at Ethereum against Bitcoin over the past few months we can see the break of the downward trend line more clearly. The recent bullish momentum allowed for price action to spike above the line.
Price action had declined up to the .382 Fibonacci Retracement of the bullish run seen in April at a price of 0.073481 where it found a significant level of support. After this price action continued to trade underneath the descending trend line until the break occurred today.
If the market can close the trading day above this trend line then this may signal a short term bullish shift in sentiment for Ethereum against Bitcoin. If price action can continue and close above 0.08000 then it is free to attempt to retest the highs seen during last month at 0.08576.
The technical indicators are showing promise for the bulls within this market. The RSI is trading above the 50 handle and is steadily heading higher, indicating the increasing bullish momentum within the market. To add further to this, the 7 day EMA and the 21 day EMA are trading very close to each other and look ready to cross up above one another which would add to the confirmation that the bullish momentum is increasing within the market.
Conclusions
The recent recovery within the Ethereum market has caused a significant break of a technical trend line relative to Bitcoin. This could be the initial catalyst needed to create a long term change in sentiment for Ethereum against Bitcoin.
Traders should eye the $600 price handle as the next major price to hurdle before a more sustained price increase can be achieved.
Ethereum Finds Support At $600 But Can The Bulls Push Us Higher?
Ethereum, the cryptocurrency giant created by Vitalik Buterin, has started the month of June on a strong footing, as it is currently trading around the $600 mark. But can the bulls garner enough momentum to push prices above the highs seen in May? The cryptocurrency giant is currently ranked 2nd in terms of overall market cap, according to data from www.coinmarketcap.com, with a market cap value of $60 billion. ETH has been trading in a range-bound market condition over the past week as the market has only increased by a total of 1.6% over the past seven trading days. Although Ethereum might be up against the US Dollar by a total of 68% from the recent low set in April at a price of $358, over the long-term, ETH is down a total of 57% from the all time high set in January at a price of $1,424. Ethereum was created in July 2015 by Vitalik with the intent to create a blockchain which allowed for developers to build decentralised apps (DAPPS) on top of it. Over the course of the last twelve months Ethereum has experienced some issues with scalability. More specifically, the decentralised app known as CryptoKitties, caused the Ethereum blockchain to slow down by delaying transactions and causing a heap of unprocessed transactions for a few days. CryptoKitties at one time managed to increase the number of unprocessed transactions by a factor of six, indicating the technical problems surrounding Ethereum driven by the CryptoKitties craze. The Ethereum blockchain currently can process a small number of 25 transactions per second whilst Bitcoin can currently process 7 transactions per second. This is a far cry from the required number of transactions required per second for the increasing demand on Ethereum’s blockchain. However, more recently Vitalik has hinted that the scalability problem surrounding Ethereum are coming to a solid resolution. Speaking at a OmiseGo event recently, Vitalik made a statement about a new development known as Sharding, which would theoretically allow the Ethereum to process up to ten thousands transactions per second. If this protocol upgrade shows any signs that it could improve transaction speed and throughput for the Ethereum blockchain then the market may experience a significant bull run. Let us examine how the price action has been behaving from a long term perspective.
ETH/USD PRICE ANALYSIS ETH-USD - LONG TERM – DAILY CHART
Looking at the market from a long term perspective, we can see that Ethereum is trading within a consolidating market. Price action has been following the confines of a very loose symmetrical triangle as price action has made neither higher highs nor lower lows.
Ethereum is trading, marginally, below the 100-day simple moving average just shy of $600. This price level has been a major pivotal point throughout the previous few months as price action finds significant support or resistance in this area.
If the market can show some movement above the $600 handle and eventually break above the upper boundary of the triangle we should see this as a potential alert that the market is in the process of a long term reversal. For the bullish market to be confirmed, we would need to see price action test and break above the highs seen in April at $838.
Alternatively, if price action fails to hold above $600 we may see an extension of the bearish trend in May as prices approach the $542 and eventually, the $461 handle.
Let us analyse price action over the past few months a little closer.
ETH-USD - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART
[caption id="attachment_1825" align="aligncenter" width="671"]
Form this high, we can see that price action had re-traced all the way up to the .618[/caption]Looking at price action more recently, we can see that April was an extremely bullish month for Ethereum as price rose from a low of $363 and continued all the way through to early May where price experienced a high of $838. Form this high, we can see that price action had re-traced all the way up to the .618 Fibonacci Retracement at a price of $542 where a small rebound was experienced. Price action is currently trading at the .50 Fibonacci Retracement level at a price of $599/$600. The retracement and the psychological round number of $600 should provide significant support in this region. If price actin can garner some momentum and push price a above the .382 Fibonacci Retracement at $656 then we may see price action make an attempt at the upper boundary of the symmetrical triangle at some point, possibly, during June. A break of the triangle would allow price action to retest the highs set in April, $838, once again. Alternatively, if the bears manage to overpower the bulls at the $600 handle, we could see prices falling back to the $542 region before finding any further support. If $542 fails, we could potentially see price action to continue further toward the lower boundary of the triangle at the $450 region. The technical indicators are at a period of indecision in this moment in time. The RSI indicator has been in a consistent battle with the 50 line over the past few trading sessions as it fails to break above or fall below the line. If we were to see some bullish momentum entering the market then we would see the RSI line begin to pull away from 50 which would confirm the bullish sentiment that prices may head toward the triangle’s upper boundary. In addition to this indecision, the moving averages have all been trading sideways for the past few sessions. If we are to see a bullish move within the market then we would need the 7-day EMA cross up above the 21-day EMA. For a long term bullish move to occur we would then need both the 7-day EMA and the 21-day EMA to cross up above the 100-day SMA.
CONCLUSION
Trading within range bound markets is a difficult task for beginner traders. Instead, it is best to wait for the market to show which way it would like to trade in by breaking out above or falling below the range. Ethereum has been in a period of consolidation for a strong few months now. However, if price action can show some bullish strength we may see the market make its movement toward the upper boundary of the triangle and attempt to break above it, within the the next month. It will be important to keep up to date with Ethereum’s upcoming development especially with regards to Sharding as a significant upgrade in transactions per second will have a serious bullish impact on price.
- Yasin Sheikh
Steve Wozniak thinks that Ethereum could be the new Apple
During the WeAreDevelopers tech conference in Vienna, Steve Wozniak compared Ethereum with Apple, saying that it could become just as influential, according to a report from Forbes.
During his speech at the conference, Wozniak described that the platform is similar to Apple's and added that he considers that it could become just as influential, adding that: “Ethereum interests me because it can do things and because it's a platform.”
Vitalik Buterin: “Sharding is coming”
Vitalik Buterin teased in a twitter post that "Sharding is coming" to Ethereum.
Sharding is coming.https://t.co/Aqo9MBiCj0 pic.twitter.com/FXEQeiKGDr
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) 30 aprilie 2018
Afterwards, he posted another Tweet, linking to a reddit post. He went on to explain: "This is a proof of concept of (part of) a fork choice rule-based mechanism for how sharding can be bolted on top of the current ethereum main chain, with a specialized random beacon and shard block times of <10 seconds. The basic idea is based on a concept of dependent fork choice rules. First, there is a proof of stake beacon chain (in phase 4, aka full casper, this will just be merged into the main chain), which is tied to the main chain; every beacon chain block must specify a recent main chain block, and that beacon chain block being part of the canonical chain is conditional on the referenced main chain block being part of the canonical main chain.
The beacon chain issues new blocks every ~2-8 seconds, with a design similar to the one prototyped here (implementation at https://github.com/ethereum/research/tree/master/old_casper_poc3), using the RANDAO mechanism to generate randomness (see https://ethresear.ch/t/rng-exploitability-analysis-assuming-pure-randao-based-main-chain/1825, https://ethresear.ch/t/rng-exploitability-analysis-assuming-pure-randao-based-main-chain/1825/10 and http://vitalik.ca/files/randomness.html for analysis), and its purpose is to be the "heartbeat" for the shard chains and to provide the randomness that determines who the proposers and notaries in the shard chains are. The beacon mechanism is upgraded with a proof of activity-inspired technique to increase its stability.
The shards then themselves have a dependent fork choice rule mechanism that ties into the beacon chain; every time a new beacon block is created, that beacon block randomly selects a proposer which has the right to create a shard collation. Each shard collation points to a parent collation on the same shard, and a beacon block.
Things that are not included in this test are:- The mechanism for notaries to confirm shard collations (though this is trivial to implement; it's the same as for beacon blocks)
- The shard-to-main-chain crosslink (see https://ethresear.ch/t/cross-links-between-main-chain-and-shards/1860) that ties the beacon and the shard chains back into the main chain
- The feature where all notarizations of any shard simultaneously double as votes in a global Casper FFG cycle, increasing Casper FFG scalability and allowing its min deposits and finality times to both be reduced (perhaps min deposits to 32 ETH and finality times to ~6 minutes)"
See also: my somewhat longer reddit posthttps://t.co/YQ2m7X6f4V
— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) 30 aprilie 2018
Vitalik Buterin will advise the new “Ethereum Community Fund”
Several large Ethereum-based projects have come together to create the Ethereum Community Fund (EFC), a vehicle to connect and fund the growth of Ethereum (ETH) infrastructure, according to the EFC website.
The founding members of the EFC are OmiseGo, Cosmos, Golem, Maker, Global Brain Blockchain Labs, and Raiden. "I’m excited to share that OmiseGO will be joining other leading Ethereum-supporting projects Cosmos, Golem, Maker, Global Brain Blockchain Labs, and Raiden in announcing the creation of the “Ethereum Community Fund” (ECF), a unique, highly networked vehicle dedicated to the acceleration of infrastructure and decentralized application development." announced Jun Hasegawa’s, the founder of OmiseGO on Medium.
Ethereum price drops below 1000$
For the first time in 2 weeks, Ethereum's price is below 1000$. Its value is, at the moment of writing, 977.29 $.
[caption id="attachment_386" align="alignnone" width="1066"]
Ethereum Charts | Coin Info News – Blockchain & Cryptocurrency News[/caption]Vitalik Buterin explains Ethereum
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDGq4aeevgY]