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Often regarded as the main rival of the ten-year bitcoin, Ethereum has never equaled the market leader in terms of volume or market capitalization, but an exciting start to the new year has thrilled investors for the altcoin. It is also a strong support for XRP – another major contender in the battle for the top spots – while its growing band of supporters are continuing their investments for January. Ethereum was welcomed by the fanfare when it was released in mid-2015 and immediately welcomed as the currency to throw away the bitcoin from its perch, but the idea of Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood and Joseph Lubin never everything met expectations. However, with the bitcoins struggling to recover from a collapse that began in November 2018, the new hope for Ethereum is starting to swell.
In the first 48 hours of 2019, ETH was establishing itself as the best performing crypt with gains of almost 10%.
He also saw that his market capitalization exceeds that of his closest rival – Ripple (XRP) – over half a million dollars.
However, this sudden growth could be influenced by a hard trio of forks planned for Ethereum in the coming weeks.
A difficult fork occurs when a cryptocurrency is needed to split and create new branches in order to allow an improved version of the encoding behind that crypto to emerge.
A recent example happened two months ago, when Bitcoin Cash was hardly forged in BCH SV and BCH ABC.
The upheavals and repercussions of that fork have led to a bitter war of words between the two factions and cost millions in the chaos that ensued when both sides tried to emerge victorious.
Ethereum, although looking at some relatively friendly divisions, is now facing the prospect of different forks – three of which will be significant, particularly for anyone involved in decentralized applications (dApps) with the Ethereum blockchain.
The first fork is expected to occur on January 11th with the Ethereum Classic Vision loophole which, as far as we know, will see all Ethereum holders receive three ETCVs for each Ethereum held in their portfolios.
The following day should see the Ethereum Nowa fork, from which ETH owners should receive an ETN for Ethereum in their portfolios.
However, all eyes are on January 16 for what should be the long-awaited fork of Constantinople Mainnet.
This, in particular, will be significant in the world of cryptocurrencies as it represents a huge step forward in pushing Ethereum towards the use of a "stake test" protocol rather than a "test of work".
It will also mean that the mining block prizes will go from three ETHs to two, but this will in turn make the network faster – something that many parts will see as a huge advantage from the fork.
Enough guess what the series of divisions will mean for market values, but history would say that it will provide at least a short-term boost.
What happens in the long term is up to the level of post-fork investment that is attracted.
Given the amount of historical support that Ethereum and his mind – Vitalik Buterin – have enjoyed over the past three and a half years, the portents are good.
The general consensus, set against the background of the continued volatility of bitcoin and the inability to return to the previous highs, is that Ethereum will emerge from its storm cloud slimmer and stronger than before.
It's a risky stratagem, but it's one of those that could put Ethereum in a serious challenge for the bitcoin kingdom for 10 years.
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