Cryptocurrency Ethereum is rallying, following an upgrade to the digital currency’s network that will make it more environmentally friendly.
At the time of publishing, one Ether (the token of the Ethereum network) was worth $4,252.
Just under a month ago one Ether was worth a staggering 42 per cent less at $2,434.
If you bought $1000 of Ether on July 20 – a little over 21 days ago you would have made more than half of your investments back.
The cryptocurrency hit its peak ever price in early May this year, where it leveled off just with just one dollar shy of the $AUD 5000 mark.
ETH Hard Fork
Simon Peters, market expert, and cryptocurrency professional at eToro, said Ethereum was adjusting to being “greener”. This was due to a major criticism of Bitcoin in the quantum of electricity. This is used to mine coins.
“Ethereum’s London hard fork finally took place on Thursday, with the crypto asset’s creator Vitalik Buterin hailing the moment as a step toward making it more energy efficient,” Mr. Peters said.
“The hard fork is the single biggest upgrade to the Ethereum network since 2015. It has significant associations for the cost of fees on the blockchain – so-called ‘gas’ fees.
“But according to the founder Buterin, it has implications for the energy efficiency of ETH. Speaking to Bloomberg News in Singapore, Buterin said EIP-1559 could reduce emissions caused by the network by 99 per cent.”
Of course, any action a cryptocurrency takes towards being more environmentally friendly is likely to hike up its price.
“Crypto assets such as ETH and bitcoin have come in for critique in recent times for high energy usage,” Mr. Peters said.
“Tesla chief executive Elon Musk sparked a major selloff in May with comments on the high emissions of the bitcoin mining process.”
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