Cryptocurrencies and blockchains are built on the idea of having decentralized networks, yet so many of these protocols operate as separate units from all other cryptocurrencies. Ethereum has obviously emerged as the spawn for hundreds of ERC-20 tokens, but now we are seeing many more partnerships occur in the space.
The last year has been full of bull predictions and rationalization for most every cryptocurrency, but now that some more building has occurred, we are starting to be able to identify where the most growth occurred.
Consensys Is Layer Unto Itself
Consensys is one example of an Ethereum development studio that is both giving and taking value from the Ethereum ecosystem. They recently selected 10 more startups to be part of their Tachyon accelerator program which will span across a broad variety of industries, including genomics, energy, security, and insurance.
As Consensys continues to help build these companies, as well as creating more tools and infrastructure that is useful in the Ethereum ecosystem, the value of the entire Ethereum ecosystem will go up.
Joseph Lubin, although a bit biased as one of the founders of Ethereum and the founder of Consensys, believes big moves like this have the potential to push Ethereum up by 1000x over the next two years. The fundamental reason for this is the increased demand for Ethereum as a smart contracting platform.
A Potential Tron Partnership
Justin Sun, the CEO and founder of Tron, believes we will see the company officially collaborate with Ethereum by the end of the year. During this tough crypto winter, we have seen Tron fight for its survival in a variety of ways, including launching its own stable coin. Now, it is gearing up to implement the second-layer scalability solution that should increase transaction throughput by 100x and decrease fees.
They are also hoping to release a privacy coin similar to Zcash in the near future, which does signal two things: a willingness to try anything, and a lack of a specific strategic roadmap. Sun’s recent comments about potentially partnering with Ethereum don’t make great sense when you look at past comments by Vitalik Buterin regarding Tron.
Perhaps there is something more in the works, or maybe Sun knows something we don’t about the current competitive dynamic between Tron and Ethereum, but this partnership seems unlikely.
At the same time, there are several other ways for the two protocols to work together, so maybe it won’t be something as formalized as a partnership and will be more of a sharing of ideas. This is all conjecture, but Sun’s comments have definitely raised a few eyebrows.
Predictions of Ethereum turning into a global settlement layer have been around for a while, but now we are starting to see big players give an actual roadmap that could justify how ETH could reach this price. The main thing to pay attention to in the future is the fundamental behind this, as well as the partnerships that are brokered. Ecosystems are the future of this space, and Ethereum’s seems to be in continued development.