If you regularly read about cryptocurrencies, you probably know something about the Cardano vs Ethereum debate.

The debate to decide which of the two blockchains is better started with the beginning of the Cardano project back in 2017 and since then, more and more fuel has been added to the fire.

Although both blockchains are very similar in terms of functionality, a growing group of crypto enthusiasts claim that Cardano is superior and that it’ll be the ultimate “Ethereum killer”.

But, is Cardano better than Ethereum?

In terms of technical infrastructure, yes. Cardano is better than Ethereum in matters of limited coin supply, scalability, PoS consensus, and a “no-code” smart contract language that makes it easy for non-coders to create smart contracts. But at present, Ethereum’s strength is due to its first-mover advantage, a huge user base, and a blockchain that has massive value.

But is this all to the story? Let’s dive in a little deeper to see if Cardano is really better than Ethereum.

What are the reasons behind these claims?

Cardano vs Ethereum: the battle of blockchains

The reality is that Cardano has managed to position itself in the crypto world as a strong competitor and alternative to Ethereum. These two platforms offer an entire ecosystem for the development and execution of smart contracts and DApps, as well as an alternative to traditional financial systems — something similar to Bitcoin.

On the one hand, Ethereum with its consensus mechanism Proof of Work (PoW), gives an economic value to its cryptocurrency Ether through a series of complex mathematical calculations, although paying the price of high energy consumption and suffering a series of problems related to scalability.

On the other hand, Cardano with its consensus mechanism Proof of Stake (PoS), manages to solve the problems inherent to PoW, requiring much less energy and resources to function, while allowing faster and cheaper transactions in comparison through its cryptocurrency ADA.

Scalability, interoperability, functionality, and economic performance are the key factors that will make the difference between one blockchain and the other at the time of truth.

Let’s now take a closer look at each of these factors to determine which project is most likely to win the next third-generation blockchain battle.

How Cardano compares to Ethereum

1. Scalability

Cardano

Although Cardano’s network is currently capable of processing a maximum of 250 transactions per second (tps), it’s expected that in future updates the network will be capable of processing up to 5,000 tps.

To achieve this, Cardano’s network will make use of a protocol called KMZ Sidechains, which will allow it to run several chains parallel to the main chain to alleviate the workload.

A good example of this is the recently implemented Hydra protocol, a Layer 2 solution that will run DApps in parallel with Cardano’s Layer 1 to provide extra scalability and cheaper fees per transaction. Cardano can add as many side chains – Hydra’s heads – as it requires to keep the desired overall performance on the network.

This, combined with the consensus mechanism Ouroboros – based on PoS – will allow the network to achieve high levels of scalability and grow without experiencing bottlenecks.

Ethereum

The current version of Ethereum can only handle a maximum of 30 tps using the PoW consensus mechanism. This has resulted in the network being congested quite frequently and transaction costs skyrocketing – not to mention a high consumption of energy and resources.

However, it’s expected that when the Ethereum network is updated to version 2.0 and thanks to the change of consensus mechanism from PoW to PoS, the number of tps will increase exponentially to a theoretical max of 100,000 while decreasing the cost of transactions significantly.

2. Interoperability

Cardano

Cardano supports interoperability with other blockchains using communication protocols that will allow other blockchains to run parallel to the main chain – one of these is KMZ. This feature is already working and it’ll allow the Cardano network to expand its functionality by adding features from other networks.

The protocols implemented in Cardano to achieve interoperability will ensure the communication and exchange of data in a secure way between chains without compromising the stability of the main network, being able to connect and disconnect any external network as necessary.

Ethereum

For its part, although Ethereum doesn’t currently have this ability to communicate with other networks, there are already several external projects that will allow adding this feature once version 2.0 is fully functional.

When the time comes, Ethereum will be more open to communication and interaction with other networks, allowing the exchange of data and values ​​in a secure and private way. Some of the top projects in this area are Chainlink, Wachain, and Aion, just to name a few.

3. Smart contracts and DApps

Cardano

Currently, Cardano already allows the development and execution of smart contracts and DApps; however, this most recent update had presented concurrency issues when executing smart contracts on the blockchain. In addition to this, it’s still lacking a well-developed ecosystem in terms of DApps.

On the other hand, the mechanism used in Cardano for the development of both smart contracts and DApps will make the technical aspect more accessible – through the Marlowe programming language – so that any type of user is able to create smart contracts and applications, as well as make it easier for the interaction of these programs with others inside and outside the network.

And while Cardano may be lacking a well-developed DApp ecosystem, insha’Allah this will soon change as there are multiple DApps in the works for Cardano. Building on Cardano is an excellent website to see projects being developed for the Cardano blockchain.

Additionally, Cardano has recently added a new feature called ERC-20 converter, a software tool to help developers migrate ERC-20 tokens to Cardano to avoid paying high gas fees and the lack of speed in transactions. Actually, at least 100 projects are expected to migrate as soon as the tool goes mainnet.

Ethereum

Ethereum is currently the pioneer and world leader of blockchains in terms of smart contracts and DApps. Since its inception in 2015, Ethereum hasn’t stopped growing in this sense, and the use of smart contracts and DApps has become popular in other blockchains thanks to this.

At this time, Ethereum already has more than 3,000 decentralized applications that work mainly in the DeFi and NFT spaces, but that also include games and tools of all kinds.

Thanks to the use of standardized types of tokens (ERC-20 and ERC 721), Ethereum has managed to build a huge and robust ecosystem in which communication and interaction between the different projects developed within the network are possible.

4. Tokenomics

Cardano

Since its introduction to the market in 2017, ADA has been gaining more and more acceptance among investors. Even though Cardano is still in development, each new major update seems to positively influence the price of this cryptocurrency, returning more than 7,000% since its introduction to the market.

This is reflected in its market capitalization ($62B) and its current price ($1.95), factors that have maintained a relatively slow but constant increase over time.

We should also consider that this cryptocurrency has a maximum supply of 45B units. This abundance of coins is one of the factors that contribute to keeping the price of ADA low.

However, the inflationary mechanism of ADA, added to the progressive decrease in the supply of currencies to the market as well as other factors and new developments on the blockchain, will contribute to the price of this asset increasing over the years insha’Allah.

Ethereum

Being Ethereum, the leading blockchain in the sector of smart contracts and decentralized applications, it’s normal that, even with the high fees, this network remains with the second largest market capitalization ($510B), only below Bitcoin.

In a similar way to what has happened with ADA, the price of Ether has been increasingly influenced by the advances in future updates of the network and as the date of ETH 2.0 approaches, it seems that the price of Ether tends to go up, already passing $4,000.

At this point, it’s important to point out that Ethereum has an unlimited supply of coins, with an increased supply programmed to an annual inflation rate of 4.5%. This is countered by the new EIP-1559 “London” update that burns a portion of the transaction fees thus decreasing the coin supply. This could lead to an increase in price in the future; something investors are looking forward to.

Due to this fact, it’s not surprising that there is an increasing demand for Ether in the market, something that is also boosted by the current NFT fever, where Ethereum plays a predominant role.

Cardano vs Ethereum: a fierce and close battle

To determine which of the two blockchains is – or will be – the winner of this battle, there is a key factor to consider: which of the two blockchains will offer more value, Cardano or Ethereum?

One of the main problems that Ethereum faces today has to do with scalability and the high cost of transactions, a problem for which Cardano has presented a solution from the beginning. While it’s true that the issue of scalability in Ethereum should be solved in version 2.0 when sharding is implemented, we will still have to wait until 2022 or 2023 to see this.

Currently, ADA has extremely low fees (close to 0.17 ADA), something that gives it a lot of stability. The problem is that Cardano doesn’t have a user base like Ethereum to take advantage of this – although I do believe this will eventually happen insha’Allah.

In addition, there is another factor that works against both projects, and it is the fact that neither of the two blockchains is fully operational.

Now, speaking in technical terms, at this time Cardano would have the advantage since this project is being developed using a scientific methodology, it’s peer-reviewed, and also very easy to audit thanks to the use of Haskell. Meanwhile, due to the use of its Solidity programming language, audits on Ethereum are much more difficult to perform.

Cardano also has a double processing layer to work with two process flows separately; computations are made on layer 1, and settlements are made on layer 2. Ethereum only uses one layer to run all processes, which is inefficient.

In terms of power consumption, Cardano is much more efficient than Ethereum due to the use of PoS, but the latter network should solve that problem by moving to version 2.0.

In economic terms, at the moment Ether has more value than ADA, naturally due to the advantage of being out first and having the effects of a large network of users and a well-developed software ecosystem. However, keep in mind that the supply of ADA is limited and this could give a strong boost to price increase in the near future. Of course, this will also depend on the offer of functions.

Final verdict

My personal opinion is that there is space in the crypto ecosystem for both platforms to coexist, at least for a few years.

The reality is that it’s impossible to predict whether one blockchain will end up wiping the other off the map since both projects are moving in practically the same direction.

Once both blockchains are fully functional and PoS becomes the new norm, eliminating problems related to energy consumption, scalability, and high fees, the preference of users for one or the other network will depend on the creativity of developers – something similar to what happens with videogame platforms.

This means that healthy competition will motivate the creation of more and better DApps, as well as the constant implementation of improvements to each network. If we add to this the new projects that are preparing to also compete with Ethereum, we will have many more options to choose from very soon.

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Videogames have been with us for around 50 years and in all this time, we have seen how this form of entertainment has evolved in a remarkable way; from something as basic as Pong or Tetris to the open worlds of Zelda.

However, we know that the evolution of videogames goes hand in hand with technology, so it was inevitable that a technology like blockchain would sooner or later become part of modern gaming.

Today, thanks to the new “Play-to-Earn” genre, players can earn money while playing and even use such games as a form of investment.

Industry analysts show strong signs that the videogame industry will continue growing and with this growth, will come new opportunities to make money. For that reason, today I present, 9 Blockchain Games to Earn Money. A list of what I consider to be the Play-to-Earn games with the greatest potential of the moment. Insha’Allah, you find one that fits your needs.

1. Axie Infinity

Buy adorable monsters, raise them, put them to fight each other, and earn money with it. That’s what Axie Infinity, the most popular blockchain/NFT game of the moment is all about.

Axie Infinity has a similar mechanic to that of the popular Pokémon, only that instead of gaining experience when fighting – either against the AI or against other players – your monsters (Axies) earn SLP tokens, which you can later exchange for real money.

In Axie Infinity, both the Axies and the game plots are represented by NFTs and that’s the key to this matter. The game runs on Ethereum and uses Ronin, an independent wallet to speed up transactions.

What you need to play Axie Infinity

To start, you’ll need to create a Ronin wallet and also have an Ethereum wallet, transfer ETH to Ronin, create an account on the Axie Infinity website, and download the game on your device.

After this, you’ll need to buy three Axies to form a fighting team. At the time of publishing this blog post, acquiring a “decent” monster for combat costs about $500, so the initial investment can be around $1,500 – although you can also opt for a scholarship to play for free.

Is it easy to earn money?

Although the initial cost can be very high for many players, Axie Infinity is a game with wide possibilities that rewards players the more time and effort they put into it. It also has other options to earn money, such as token staking, Axies breeding, and buying/selling virtual plots.

2. Alien Worlds

Alien Worlds is a game in which players can explore and mine on different planets, use weapons, artifacts, and minions in space battles. In Alien Worlds you can win Trilium (TLM), a cryptocurrency token that you get through real crypto mining represented in the game, in addition to NFTs for free.

TLM is a token that joins the Wax and Ethereum blockchains and allows the economies of both chains to function as one. Subsequently, you can trade and sell both TLMs and NFTs on various exchanges and earn money from them.

What you need to play Alien Worlds

Getting started in Alien Worlds is as simple as creating a wallet in Wax Cloud Wallet and an account on the game’s official website associating your Wax wallet.

It’s also possible to start in Alien Worlds without investing any money. In this case, you start with a standard character and a shovel, then travel to different planets to find Trilium. During mining, there is a chance to find some NFT for free.

Is it easy to earn money?

In Alien Worlds, it’s possible to earn a good amount of money, but this will depend a lot on several factors, including the quality and quantity of your tools, as well as the planet you are mining on. In many cases, at the time of publishing this blog post, there is the possibility of finding NFTs with a value between $30 and $40, and even more valuable ones.

3. CryptoBlades

CryptoBlades is a web browser RPG released on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) that also uses NFT technology. The game revolves around obtaining powerful swords and fighting in an epic fantasy world. CryptoBlades also rewards players with cryptocurrency tokens called SKILL, when they participate in battles against other players and in some in-game challenges.

In addition to that, you can also upgrade your characters and weapons as you progress through the game, which also serves to increase your earnings.

What you need to play CryptoBlades

To get started in CryptoBlades, you only need a web browser and a compatible wallet configured for BSC. Once you have connected your wallet to the game’s DApp, you should have at least 0.5 SKILL on hand, something quite inexpensive compared to other similar games.

Is it easy to earn money?

In CryptoBlades you have the possibility to forge new and more powerful weapons to increase your chances of winning more SKILL. In addition to earning money from battles, you can also claim daily SKILL bonuses, trade in-game, and put your tokens on staking.

4. MegaCryptoPolis 3D

MegaCryptoPolis 3D (MCP3D) is a game that focuses on building cities. As a user, you can run the game through any browser, including your mobile phone, while in-game assets are stored on the Ethereum and TRON blockchains, where the game runs.

As a player, you can create your own buildings or just rent them, produce new construction materials, new generations of citizens, create services, place ads, tour the city, and more. All this while earning money in the form of $MEGA tokens.

What you need to play MegaCryptoPolis 3D

Being based on the Ethereum and TRON blockchains, you’ll need a digital wallet compatible with these networks, acquire some ETH or TRX, depending on the network you choose, and start buying blocks of virtual land on the city map before proceeding to create buildings. Each lot of land is represented as an ERC-721 token that you can transfer and trade as a cryptocurrency on external markets.

Is it easy to earn money?

Each building in MCP3D is represented by an NFT. Take into account that you can do everything in the game related to construction and real estate, so the options to earn money are many. On the other hand, you don’t even need a building or land to play; you can buy game assets on the market and sell them at a higher price when they go up in price, either whole or even in parts to earn more money.

5. The Sandbox

The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based open virtual world that allows players to build, play, own, and monetize their virtual gaming experiences and ideas.

In The Sandbox, you’ll find 3D modeling software tools that will allow you to create your own voxel assets and then move on to animate your creations, which can be anything, including people, tools, monsters, buildings, etc.

Finally, you can export your creations in The Sandbox, to The Sandbox Marketplace, where you can sell them in the form of NFTs.

What you need to play The Sandbox

Once you have created and configured your Ethereum wallet, you need to buy LAND. These LANDs are chunks of virtual land on which you can shape your NFT creations. Once you do this, you get SAND, The Sandbox’s native utility token that is used throughout the ecosystem to perform transactions.

Is it easy to earn money?

The key to making money is in the quantity and quality of your creations: the more of these two factors you have, the more SAND you will get.

Then you can use this SAND as a means of exchange in The Marketplace or other external markets, or invest part of your SAND tokens to earn additional rewards thanks to staking. With SAND’s current price around $1, this may be a very good option.

6. Crazy Defense Heroes

Crazy Defense Heroes (CDH) is a game developed and published by Animoca Brands. It’s the largest and most expanded version of the Crazy Kings game, which was released on iOS in 2017 and Android in 2018.

CDH belongs to the popular “defend the tower” genre, but it has a somewhat more complete gameplay enriched with elements such as resource gathering, new heroes, buildings, and spells.

This app offers you more than 500 levels of frantic gameplay, in addition to the possibility of playing against real opponents in strategic online PvP games. On top of that, being based on Ethereum, you can earn TOWER tokens as you progress in your adventure.

What you need to play Crazy Defense Heroes

For starters, Crazy Defense Heroes is a free-to-play game, so you don’t need to make any initial investment to start playing. What you’ll need is to link your game account to your Ethereum wallet to claim your rewards or buy tokens to make purchases or exchanges within the game.

Is it easy to earn money?

The more time you spend playing CDH, the more TOWER tokens you will earn. Take into account that it’s possible to acquire better weapons, equipment, and cards to advance within the game and for this, users need TOWER tokens. In this way, you can put your surplus TOWER tokens up for sale on exchanges such as Sushiswap or Uniswap.

7. Ethermon

Ethermon is a game built on the Ethereum network in which you can unleash your passion for collecting monsters, in this case, Ether Mons. You must capture them, put them to fight, and exchange them for other monsters to earn $EMON, the game currency.

Thanks to Ethermon’s smart contracts and their programming, you’ll have the guarantee that your monsters are yours and nobody else’s property and since each monster has a unique and unrepeatable personality and characteristics, you can sell and trade them like any collector’s item.

What you need to play Ethermon

As always, an Ethereum wallet, buy Ether on any reputable exchange, and play to win $EMON.

Like “MonSeeker,” you must interact with smart contracts to achieve three objectives:

• Capture Ethermons – There is a limited number.
• Train your monsters – You can even raise hatchlings from them and then sell or rent them to other players.
• Fight other MonSeekers – You know, more $EMON.

Is it easy to earn money?

As you can see, Ethermon’s mechanics are very similar to those of Axie Infinity. You’ll use $EMON to send your Ethermons on adventures for a chance to find new and exclusive monsters, or buy Ethermon eggs from the shop and see what they hatch.

From time to time, new collections of Ethermons appear available in official stores and since the platform has a limited distribution, the more rare and powerful your monsters are, the more valuable they will be.

8. Lost Relics

Lost Relics is an RPG action game similar to the famous Diablo, in which you must explore dungeons full of enemies to meet certain objectives. However, the game also has some roguelike touches, so the difficulty is somewhat higher.

The best thing about this game is that you can find items in the form of NFTs based on the Enjin blockchain, which gives them value in the cryptocurrency market.

You can have several roles within the game including miner, fisherman, alchemist, blacksmith, and depending on which one you choose, you can obtain specific benefits.

What you need to play Lost Relics

You will need to have an Enjin wallet in order to transfer the NFT items you find in the game to sell them on the Enjin marketplace. The game is Free-to-Play, but note that you will need to have a – more or less – powerful computer to play, with a graphics card of at least 8GB RAM.

Is it easy to earn money?

The game requires some time and dedication to gain experience and level points. As you progress, the chances of getting more and better NFT items to sell on the market also increase.

Meanwhile, you can accumulate “gold coins.” This is another type of incentive that you can get by completing an adventure – and sporadically in barrels or boxes – and that are used to carry out in-game transactions – something similar to Runescape gold.

9. Upland

Upland is a Play-to-Earn game based on the EOS blockchain, in which users can build, buy, sell, and trade virtual properties assigned to the real world to earn UPX coins. The project uses blockchain to link each property within Upland to an NFT.

Thanks to its recent partnership with Tilia Pay, Upland users can now sell their NFT virtual assets through the Second Life payment network, which supports PayPal to withdraw their earnings in USD. This should give you an idea of the capabilities of the platform.

What you need to play Upland

You can start the game by registering on the official website and connecting your compatible EOS wallet. The game is also available for iOS and Android.

In addition to this, you’ll need UPX to be able to carry out in-game transactions. The good part is that when you first sign up, the game gives you a welcome bonus of several thousand UPX. But it’s certain that sooner or later, you’ll need to buy more UPX in the game.

Is it easy to earn money?

Each property you build or acquire will generate passive income in the form of UPX. The problem is that they generate a very low monthly income. Another perhaps more profitable option is collections, which are nothing more than a certain number of properties in some specific place on the map. These collections can give you additional benefits in the form of bonuses.

Is playing video games halal?

Is playing video games halal? Yes, scholars say that it is permissible to play video games so long as the focus and/or content of the video game is not on haram things such as murder, stealing, gambling, nudity, etc. Also, the video game must not promote hate towards or the destruction of Islam and if you are earning money from playing video games, then the money should not come from prize money that is sourced from the collection of contestant fees.

And even though playing video games is halal, scholars still do not encourage it as playing video games may lead some to neglect the rights of Allah, others, or even themselves by forgetting prayer times, not giving proper time to one’s spouse, or other necessary obligations.

For a more in-depth perspective on the permissibility of playing video games, please see the article, Axie Infinity Overview and is Axie Infinity Halal?

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You may have heard of Ethereum, and along with Bitcoin, it is one of the two leading cryptocurrencies in the world right now. There’s a chance you may have even bought some Ethereum in the past or own some now. Even if this is the case, you may still not fully understand what Ethereum is. You just heard that it’s a good cryptocurrency to have and you decided to buy and HODL (Hold On for Dear Life).

So what is Ethereum? Ethereum is a cryptocurrency that builds upon the capabilities of Bitcoin. Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain that allows programmers to create decentralized applications (dApps) that run on the Ethereum blockchain with the native token of the blockchain being called, Ether.

Many experts predict that Ethereum will be the technology that will dominate the crypto market within a few years and that it’ll even be the world’s reference currency. But what is Ethereum, how does it work, what are its possibilities, and what does the nearest future hold for it?

In this guide, What is Ethereum? Ethereum for Beginners, we’ll give you the answers to these and other questions about Ethereum, so that when you finish reading, you’ll be almost an expert on the subject insha’Allah.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a blockchain-based network – similar to the Bitcoin blockchain – that supports its own cryptocurrency called Ether (ETH), and which also allows the development of other programs based on its technology.

What does this mean?

It means that it is a platform that offers tools to “create” other things, such as:

• Other cryptocurrencies
• Smart contracts
• Decentralized applications (dApps)
• Centralized payment bridges
• Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)
• Crowdfunding offers (ICO)

Ethereum was initially proposed by Vitalik Buterin at the end of 2013, a project that other people quickly joined, such as Anthony Di Lorio, Gavin Wood, and Joseph Lubin, among others.

Finally, Ethereum was formally launched on July 30, 2015, with the mining of its first block – the genesis block.

What is the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Although Bitcoin and Ethereum have many things in common, they also have many differences.

The main difference between both blockchains is their objectives. The purpose of Bitcoin is to represent wealth, like gold. It could even replace traditional money.

On the other hand, the purpose of Ethereum is to be a platform for other applications to work, mainly Smart Contracts – more on that later.

Bitcoin is a digital currency and is not used for anything else, while the Ethereum platform also has its digital currency called Ether (ETH), but this is used for network maintenance.

In the technical aspect, there are quite a few differences and if we had to choose between the most relevant, these would be the following:

1- Emission limit
Currently, the Bitcoin network creates 12.5 BTC every 10 minutes (75 BTC per hour), while the Ethereum network can create 3 Ethers every 15 seconds (720 Ether per hour).

2- Units limit
While Bitcoin limits its production to 21 million bitcoin – and there are about 18 million in circulation – the amount of Ether that can be produced is unlimited.

3- Operating cost
In Bitcoin, the cost of transactions is linked to the size of the transaction. In Ethereum, the cost (gas fees) is assigned to each operation.

4- Node size
The size of the Bitcoin node is limited to 1MB, while in Ethereum it’s limited by the amount of gas. This means that Bitcoin only processes 4 transactions per second, while Ethereum processes 20.

5- Versatility
The Bitcoin hash algorithm (SHA-256) is performed efficiently with specific hardware such as ASIC. In Ethereum, its algorithm, the KECCAK-256, is not as specific to one type of hardware, which guarantees further mining decentralization.

What can you do with the Ethereum blockchain?

Before answering this question, it’s important to first understand how Ethereum works.

If you want to do something on the Ethereum network you need Ether, which is its native cryptocurrency. Ether is like food for Ethereum. Each transaction requires an amount of Ether and the larger and more complex the work, the more Ether is needed.

Imagine for a moment that you need someone to prepare a report of your business’ sales, which will cost 12 Ether.

Traditionally and for security reasons, you first wait for the report to be prepared for you, and then you transfer the money, right? But sometimes it happens that they ask you for the money before they can start the job.

But what happens if you pay and then the other person doesn’t do their part? You’ve been scammed…

With Ethereum, the transaction can be linked to a Smart Contract in which it’s reflected that if Carl prepares and delivers the report for Peter, Carl will receive 12 Ether in his wallet automatically. All this would be reflected in a transparent way for both parties in the Ethereum network. There is no place for scams.

The goal of Ethereum is to allow developers to write programs that allow self-governance and transaction automation. In addition to this, the use of decentralized applications or dApps within the Ethereum network allows the development of all kinds of digital products and services.

The Ethereum blockchain allows the principles of trust, transparency, security, and efficiency to be transferred to any service, business, or industry. In this way, Ethereum has managed to integrate into a wide variety of services and industries, including:

• File custody services
• Platforms for the exchange of goods and services
• Product shipment tracking
• Insurance contracts
• Web services of all kinds
• Videogames
• Collectible tokens (NFTs)
• Prediction markets
• Social media
• Information records

An example is Gnosis, a decentralized prediction market that allows its users to vote on all kinds of topics. Another similar app is Augur, which rewards correct predictions on various topics.

EtherTweet is a social network similar to Twitter but without any kind of censorship. Cent is another social network for people to experiment with NFTs.

For its part, Etheria, is a game similar to Minecraft, but with incentives, Cryptokitties is a popular NFT collectibles game, and DAI is a stablecoin or currency pegged to the US dollar.

Your imagination is the limit.

What are Ethereum Smart Contracts?

Smart Contracts are the feature that best identifies the Ethereum network. These are programs that replicate traditional contracts, but instead of being made on paper, they’re written in computer code stored in the blockchain.

These “contracts” are no longer analyzed, interpreted, and executed by people, but are executed by the computers that are part of the Ethereum network, in exchange for a financial reward.

As we mentioned before, these contracts are executed automatically – after payment to the network – according to the agreement established between the parties involved. That is, the software will execute a series of predetermined tasks, according to the instructions written in its code.

The payment to the network is necessary so that there is an economic incentive to dedicate the computational power necessary to execute the contract. This implies that the more complex and lengthy a contract is, the more expensive it’ll be – one of Ethereum’s current problems.

Now, the most interesting and innovative part of all this, is that there is no need for a trusted third party to ensure compliance with the contract, but rather, technology that ensures that the conditions are met.

In addition, it’s not possible to modify or censor the contract, since it’s written in a public and immutable database such as the blockchain.

What are Ethereum gas fees?

Up to this point, you already know that Ethereum and Ether are not the same thing; Ethereum is the base platform, while Ether is the cryptocurrency used on that platform.

Every time you send ETH or use an application on Ethereum, you’ll have to pay a small fee in ETH to use the network. This is an incentive for miners to process and verify what you want to do.

Of course, you can also use ETH as a payment method, or invest in it and wait for a subsequent price increase and collect your profits.

It’s also important to say that each ETH is divisible by up to 18 decimal places (0.000000000000000001 ETH). This is important when it comes to gas fees.

What exactly are gas fees?

On the Bitcoin network, each time a transaction takes place, this includes a small commission for the miners who maintain the network. The equivalent within Ethereum is what we know as “gas.”

It’s not another currency, it’s the name that is given to the measure you have to pay to use the network, be it a transfer, a smart contract, a game, etc.

Now, we can see two different concepts here: the gas limit and the gas price.

The limit refers to how many units of gas you are willing to spend on a particular transaction and usually, it doesn’t vary; while the price is the amount of ETH that each unit of gas costs. To get the total cost, you must then multiply the limit by the price.

Here is an excellent website that will help you to determine the cost of Ether gas prices, Ethereum Gas Tracker.

Pros and Cons of Ethereum

Many people think that Ethereum is the cryptocurrency destined to replace Bitcoin as the queen of the crypto world, however, everything has its pros and cons. Let’s see.

Advantages of Ethereum:

1.- Decentralized automation
Ethereum is a global access platform on which it’s possible to run complex smart contracts. This totally eliminates the need to depend on services provided by third parties for its operation.

2.- Platform for other products or services
This ability allows Ethereum to be an increasingly robust ecosystem. As time goes by, there will be a greater quantity and better quality of information on the platform insha’Allah.

3.- Defined goals
The future of Ethereum is clear, so the community has the standards for what to expect in the next few years, much clearer than with other blockchains.

4- Great support
Beyond the founders of Ethereum, there are many companies involved in its study and development. After Bitcoin, Ethereum (and Ether) is the most business-supported crypto network.

Disadvantages of Ethereum:

1- Complexity
The fact that Ethereum is intended as a platform and not as a cryptocurrency, causes it to never be as effective as other blockchains. Bitcoin is simple and effective, it only has one approach. Instead, Ethereum is designed to be a kind of supercomputer. That complexity makes it less optimized.

2- Possible failures
Ethereum will soon undergo major changes transitioning to the Ethereum 2.0 network (Eth 2.0). If there are any problems during this period, it could seriously damage the platform architecture and crash the system.

3- Difficult for newbies
There is no availability of a large amount of quality documentation on the platform, which is an obstacle for those who want to develop projects in Ethereum for the first time. Over time it will improve, but for the moment, getting involved in developing Smart Contracts is difficult for many.

4– High gas fees
Due to the high congestion of transactions on the Ethereum network, miners are charging higher gas fees as they get to pick and choose what transactions they want to validate and this has been a major pain point with Ethereum as many people are not able to have their transactions processed on the network as they are not willing or do not have the funds to pay for the high gas fees.

The future of Ethereum

Certainly, the Ethereum network is one of the most used blockchains in the world and since its launch in 2015, it has been moving towards the proposed goal of becoming a huge global network of decentralized applications.

However, Ethereum still has a lot to improve, and the community behind its development is working hard to make this goal come true.

Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity) will be the largest and most comprehensive update ever made by the Ethereum community and is supposed to improve almost all current network problems:

1.- Scalability
This is the main current problem for Ethereum, as the network supports a large number of applications and can only process about 20 transactions per second. To solve this, the development community will use a process called sharding.

2.- Efficiency
The consensus currently used in Ethereum is known as Proof of Work (PoW) and requires a huge amount of computational power and electricity, which makes it very inefficient and expensive.

Eth 2.0 will seek the transition of the network from a PoW protocol to a Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol called “Casper”, which will help improve scalability, efficiency, and sustainability for the network, as well as lower gas fees for transactions and smart contracts.

Rewards
Aside from correcting problems, Eth2 will also bring the possibility for users to invest their Ether and earn rewards by running nodes or joining staking pools, or even staking through external exchanges.

This possibility of staking of Eth2, could also be a factor that makes the price of Ether rise in the future.

Is Ethereum halal?

Is Ethereum halal? Yes, Ethereum is halal. Scholars that rule cryptocurrency as halal also consider Ethereum as halal. Scholars view Ethereum (ETH) as a utility token and as an asset and not a currency.

Some of our scholars have also been closely studying Ethereum. Amanie Advisors, a shariah advisory firm that specializes in Islamic finance, has written a whitepaper on Ethereum where they have concluded that Ethereum does meet the requirements to be categorized as mal (property) according to the shariah and is therefore halal to buy, sell, hold, trade, and to utilize on the Etereum blockchain for any halal activity.

Amanie Advisors recognizes Ethereum as a utility token and categorizes Ethereum as an asset and not a currency, so the rules of riba al buyu do not apply as it is not yet classified as a currency.

Their goal of researching and producing a whitepaper on Ethereum is to encourage scholars of Islamic finance to find ways to utilize blockchain technology for the good of the ummah and the world at large.

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