Would these five cryptocurrencies surpass Ethereum's popularity?

Summary

• There has been growing interest in cryptocurrencies recently.
• Ethereum has been gaining popularity due to its technical upgrades and potential applications.
• Solano, Algorand, Cardano etc. have great potential and can give competition to Ethereum.

2020 was all about the boom in decentralised finance, with the public interest still growing in the crypto market.

Investors aspiring to diversify their portfolios are flocking to major cryptocurrencies as traditional assets suffered due to macroeconomic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many expanding businesses are also embracing cryptocurrency as a legal payment method.

Bitcoin has witnessed significant growth in 2020 but saw major fluctuations in April and May 2021. The largest digital currency has plummeted since April 2021, down 40% from its highs in 2021, due to increased scrutiny on its environmental toll.

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Interest in digital currencies has grown beyond Bitcoin as governments become more receptive to them. As a result, Ethereum is the new emerging name in the crypto market. Conclusion: there are beliefs that Ethereum can replace Bitcoin and become number 1 cryptocurrency in market share.

Ethereum platform's potential uses decreased environmental effects, and technological advancements like the recent Ethereum 2.0 upgrade are expected to attract investors' interest in ether. However, new cryptos are challenging Ethereum and threaten to steal its thunder.

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Let's have a look at these 5 cryptos that can unseat ether.

Solana

The new update on Ethereum blockchain, called as London Hard Fork, aims to limit Ethereum mining. Then, miners were rewarded with new coins from validating a block and were compensated by transaction fees paid by users. Under the new upgrade, miners will no longer get transaction fees, which can lead to a possible migration.

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Solana, launched in April 2020, can be the key beneficiary of the migration because it can process transactions significantly quicker even after Ethereum is upgraded. The transaction speed, cost efficiency and scalability of the Solana network set it apart from other cryptos.

Algorand

Algorand can be another name that can lead in smart contract platforms.

Algorand, launched in 2021, is an autonomous, decentralised, blockchain-based network, which may be used for various purposes. High speed, security, and decentralisation are all features of Algorand that can make its prospects bright.

Cardano

Cardano, launched in 2017, provides a similar platform to Ethereum but emphasises on a research-driven design strategy.

It uses a mechanism called Ouroboros, a blockchain protocol that is a more secure and scalable way to keep decentralisation ongoing. Cardano's Alonzo hard Fork has also been delayed until August, bringing smart contracts to the Cardano blockchain.

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Whereas Ethereum uses smart contracts to create dapps and deploys code to the Ethereum blockchain.

Tezos

Tezos, launched in 2018, is a decentralised network allowing the establishment of decentralised applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Tezos utilises the liquid Proof of Stake (LPoS) consensus method, allowing users to stake their tokens directly or assign them to bakers (randomly selected nodes).

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Both Ether and Tezos support smart contracts. However, discrepancies exist in coding languages used for smart contracts on every platform. In addition, Ethereum uses an off-chain governance mechanism, while Tezos uses an on-chain governance mechanism.

Polkadot

Polkadot lets any app developer construct their own blockchain called Parachains, giving the control to users. This is in contrast to using Ethereum's smart contracts to operate applications on a blockchain. However, these blockchains are interoperable, meaning they may exchange data with one another.

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Many creative products will emerge on Polkadot that would be impossible to launch in Ethereum's smart contract framework.