Ethereum has quickly become a top cryptocurrency over the years. Its strong focus on technical developments makes it a haven for developers. On the payments front, things are finally coming together as well. Debit card service provider Wirex has enabled ETH support earlier this week.
Conveniently Buying and Spending Ethereum
Obtaining cryptocurrency remains a big hurdle for most consumers. Additionally, there are not many reasons to own Bitcoin or Ethereum other than speculative purposes. Spending this form of money is very difficult without global merchant adoption. Solutions such as the Wirex Payment Card offer an intermediary solution in this regard. Additionally, the firm provides an easy gateway to buy, sell, and store the supported currencies.
By enabling Ethereum support, Wirex continues to expand. The company offers users a wallet service for this cryptocurrency. It makes it easier to purchase and sell Ethereum in exchange for traditional payments. Furthermore, ETH can be used to fund transactions through the company’s native debit card. Spending cryptocurrency with a debit card unlocks a lot of shopping potential around the globe.
Most cryptocurrency users do not envision Ether as a payment currency. This is primarily due to Etheruem’s main focus on blockchain technology. With the help of Wirex, a lot of Ether holders can now begin to spend their holdings on everyday purchases. It is also the fourth currency to be added to this platform, following Bitcoin, Litecoin, and XRP. It is unclear if the company will add more currencies to this list in the future.
Ethereum’s Long-term Outlook
This week has been rather rough for Ethereum supporters. A recent article on TechCrunch claims the project’s collapse is imminent and unavoidable. It remains to be seen if things will ever get out of hand on such a scale. The project is in the process of undergoing some major changes on the technical side.
New scaling solutions for Ethereum are being explored right now. This includes concepts such as Plasma and sharding. There is also an active discussion among developers to reduce the current block rewards. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ethereum has a mining difficulty “bomb” which makes the process of mining completely worthless. Despite that difficult bomb, Ethereum’s supply will keep increasing further through proof-of-stake.
All cryptocurrencies find themselves at a crossroads of sorts. For Bitcoin and alternative currencies, scaling and transaction fees remain two of the primary pressing matters. With these technical changes on the horizon, most of the concerns will be put to bed in the coming months. It will mainly depend on when these changes are officially introduced. For Ethereum, time may very well be of the essence in this regard.
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