Although Ethereum has become one of the most popular blockchain platforms around, it’s not without its detractors. Some myths about Ethereum may have started as honest misinterpretations or misunderstandings, but some people take them as gospel when they shouldn’t. Let’s take a look at 10 common myths about Ethereum and see what the truth really is behind them.
1) Ethereum is just a cryptocurrency
Ethereum is much more than just a cryptocurrency. It also has the ability to act as a programmable blockchain that lets developers build and deploy decentralized applications. These are applications that don’t rely on one central server, but instead run on the blockchain. This means they can never be shut down, and offer increased security from hacking attacks.
2) Ethereum is only used by criminals
This is one of the most common myths about ethereum. The truth is that criminals have been using blockchain technology for a long time before ethereum came on the scene. Bitcoin has been used to facilitate transactions with ransomware and child pornography. Bitcoin has also been used to buy illegal drugs from the now defunct dark web marketplaces Silk Road, Alphabay, and Hansa Market.
3) The Ethereum network is slow and congested
Ethereum does not have a central authority, which means transactions are quick and the network is not congested.
The Ethereum network can process about 15 transactions per second, compared to Bitcoin’s 7 transactions per second. The main difference between the two networks is that while Bitcoin limits the number of transactions that can be processed by miners in one block, on the Ethereum network there is no limit to the number of transactions that miners can process in one block.
4) Smart contracts are vulnerable to hacks
Ethereum is a blockchain platform that provides a decentralized virtual machine and its own crypto-currency called Ether. One of the benefits of Ethereum is that it runs smart contracts, which are essentially computer programs that execute as soon as conditions are met. However, because these smart contracts are coded on the blockchain, they can be vulnerable to hacks. This was illustrated in 2016 when hackers stole $60 million worth of Ether from Parity Technologies by exploiting a bug in their code.
5) Solidity is a difficult language to learn
Solidity is a programming language for writing smart contracts in the Ethereum Virtual Machine. It’s designed to be a low-level, high-level language and it’s quite easy to learn!
Learn more about Solidity
6) Dapps are not being used
Dapps are not being used because there are few people who understand what they are and how they work. In order to use dApps, you need an understanding of the blockchain and how smart contracts work. There is also a lack of infrastructure that makes it difficult for developers to build on top of the Ethereum network. For example, major browsers like Chrome and Safari do not support web3-enabled apps natively.
7) The price of Ether is too volatile
The price of Ether is too volatile to be used for day-to-day transactions.
The price of Ether is too volatile to be used for day-to-day transactions. This means that people would need to convert back and forth between fiat currency and ether in order to complete a transaction, which would result in unnecessary fees.
8) Ethereum is not regulated
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain that can be used to build and execute smart contracts. The cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network is called Ether. Ether is used by developers to pay for transactions on the network.
9) Enterprise companies are not interested in Ethereum
One of the most common myths about Ethereum is that enterprises are not interested in it. This is simply not true and it’s easy to see why. One of the major reasons for this myth is a lack of understanding about what enterprise companies actually do, which can lead to a misunderstanding of how they would use something like Ethereum.
10) There is no way to scaling on Ethereum
One of the most common myths that people have about Ethereum is that it does not have a way to scale. This is false, as there are many proposals for scaling on the Ethereum blockchain. Some plans include sharding, which would split the blockchain into pieces and process them in parallel. Other plans call for Proof-of-Stake mining to make mining more scalable.