Ethereum is currently trading at 18 month lows and looks like a complete wreck ahead of the New Year if you look at price alone. However, a more careful look at the numbers will reveal a different story when it comes to the Ethereum network. A closer eye will notice a rise on the number of projects built on the network and a rise in the number of developers working to build of the network.
The Ethereum network has processed a total of over 353 million transactions to date, which is an increase of over a 100 million since the 1st of June this year. This numbers just about hit the record akin to an earlier record that had seen the network process 1.3 million transactions within a duration of 24 hours.
Despite the slump in prices, the network has enjoyed relative stability this year comparable to what it enjoyed last year. This year has also seen more longevity in newly created addresses. Newly created addresses were used for 35.45 days before going inactive which is a 3 fold improvement compared to last year.
Other than the number of transactions and the increase in new account longevity, the network has also seen a surge in the number of smart contract deployments. 200,000 was the number of smart contracts that had been created back in June, the number rose to just over 1 million in October and nearly 1.5 million in November. These numbers no doubt mean that the Ethereum Blockchain remains the single most robust smart contract platform in existence.
If you doubt the robustness and reliability of the Ethereum network, then consider the fact that 96% of the top 100 tokens are built of Ethereum, and also 89% of the top 1000 tokens are built off Ethereum.
In the utilities front, ethereum us known for its ability to program and build decentralized applications (Dapps) on top of it. This has endeared the network to a lot of developers who have contributed steadily to its continued growth over the years. Miners are also steadily interacting with the network with reported 11,000 active nodes operating which are spread out across 6 continents. This speaks to the geographic diversity of the network.
Beyond developers and miners, interest in the network is growing steadily and is partly demonstrated by the growth of Reddit’s Ethereum community. The adoption of ethereum is being experienced in government institutions, private firms, as well as entertainment spots.
So what does all this mean?
It means that Ethereum despite the low market prices is a strong network that is receiving global attention and being adopted at a rapid rate. Ethereum is therefore definitely worth a look in if you are interested in crypto investments
