Why I think Ethereum price will go much higher!

Hi Steemians,

I recently came across a post on Steemit that basically was an advice to the readers not to buy Ethereum. There wasn't much explanation but just that Ethereum was in a bubble territory. 

I think I've heard this term (bubble) so many times in the last few months that it doesn't panics me anymore. Instead I tried to do some research on why Ethereum was gaining so much value in terms of price lately. What I found opened my eyes, and I thought to write this post about why I think Ethereum has the potential to reach Bitcoin territory in terms of price in the next couple of years.

To begin with, I want to explain where the value of a crypto currency comes from, you know the price that you see on "coinmarketcap.com". 

The intrinsic value of any cryptocurrency is dependent on 2 things, first is it's real world use and 2nd is what people want to pay for it. Now the second value is determined only when people see what they can use the cryptocurrency for. 

So here are a few real world problems that Ethereum solves and thereby allows people to actually use it's technology or at least shows them what they can use it for in the future:

1. Health Services:

Ethereum has the capacity to revolutionize health care system around the world. It can be used to store, access and share the records of patients all around the globe. Ethereum technology can also be really handy in case of disease outbreaks so that vaccines or medication can be developed as soon as information becomes available. In most of the cases it can even help in preventing such an outbreak in the first place.So in summary, suppose you're on holidays in Bali and suffer an immediate health emergency. Instead of trying to explain your medical history, your data will already be available to any hospital you wish to attend. 

2. Secure network:

Ethereum network has no central server, so it's almost impossible to hack into it. Much much harder than hacking into Google servers to steal your private information.

3. Transactions:

Ethereum can change how we interact with each other. The so called "smart contracts" on it's network can make it possible to exchange anything of value and that too completely risk free. So there'd be no need of signing a paper agreement, instead the transaction is recorded in the form a computer algorithm. So instead of using Alibaba to buy your stock from China and having to pay a transaction fee, you can deal directly with the trader, thereby cutting the transaction cost.

4. Third party privacy issue:

Ethereum's blockchain technology will make data collection impossible by the big search engines like Google and Bing. So basically it'll create logs every time Google or any other search engine uses your data and those logs will be publicly available. So in case you see Google have used your data to sell it to a third party when you visited a particular website, you may want to move to a different Search provider. So Google will have to be much more careful when dealing with your data.

5. Election process/Political awareness:

Most of us know how sometimes the elections can be rigged by politicians. Well Ethereum has the answer to that as implementing Ethereum network for casting your votes(if implemented) would make it impossible for anybody to rig the system as every change is logged and publicly visible. In essence, Ethereum will make our democracy more transparent and fair.

6. Self-driving cars:

When it comes to self driving vehicles, one of the biggest hurdles is the costly refuelling/recharging. Now, to solve this a database of fuel/electricity suppliers would need to be created by a centralized custodian with the ability to update it on a regular basis. So by implementing this database a vehicle could query the database of suppliers on its way to the pump/charging station and negotiate the cost of refuelling. This process would allow vehicles to consistently operate at optimal efficiency. The below link has a nice video that'll explain more about how blockchain technology can help with this approach:

(https://www.zf.com/corporate/en_de/magazine/magazin_artikel_viewpage_22227304.html?etcc_med=STC_CC_ATTR_VALUE_SOCIAL&etcc_cmp=Twitter)

7. Storing data:

Storing huge amounts of data on a server in a particular location is risky as it may get hacked into, or fall victim to fire, flood or other calamities. So companies like Dropbox or Microsoft are not ideal for storing your confidential data.

That's where Ethereum's decentralised storage facility steps in. In this case, the data is not stored in a particular location, but instead it's spread across on several hundred data centres/computers around the world. Until now it was a challenge to build such a network that connects all these servers safely and enables fast data transfer but Ethereum's blockchain technology can be used to encrypt and transfer the data between millions of machines at blazing fast speeds.

8. Gambling:

This industry is really big around the world. The US gambling market is around $240 billion USD. But it's the most fraudulent and shadiest sectors of the economy. Quite a lot of it's business is now transacted online, but that too lacks transparency.

This is where Ethereum's network can help. It can completely disrupt the casino/gambling industry because players won't have to fear any scams anymore.

As you can see Ethereum solves a lot of real world issues. So much so that there's now a "Enterprise Ethereum Alliance". This alliance comprises of the world's top enterprises including JP Morgan, Toyota etc. Recently this alliance announced the joining of another 86 firms in the alliance, which in turn helps the cryptocurrency gain legitimacy.

So I'll leave it upto you guys to make up your mind regarding Ethereum but in my opinion it's price is going to go quite a lot higher in the months to come.

Steem On!

Inspired by:

1. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/ethereum-the-new-kid-in-digital-currency-beating-bitcoin-117060100550_1.html

2. http://coinnoob.com/ethereum-real-world-use

3. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-22/toyota-merck-join-ethereum-group-to-build-blockchain-network

4. https://www.zf.com/corporate/en_de/magazine/magazin_artikel_viewpage_22227304.html?etcc_med=STC_CC_ATTR_VALUE_SOCIAL&etcc_cmp=Twitter