A beginner’s guide to buying and trading Ether in India.
Ethereum is an altcoin with several features that allow it to do more than just be bought and sold.
Here, you can find a list of places to buy Ether and learn more about what makes it different. If you’re planning to purchase Ether, it’s worth knowing more about the coin’s unique features and its pros and cons.
Where to buy and trade Ether in India
The most straightforward way to get Ether (ETH) might be to buy it on an exchange or through a brokerage service.
Depending on the service, you might be able to make a bank transfer, pay by credit card or use PayPal.
Other ways to get ETH:
- Get paid directly in ETH. You may be able to get paid directly over the Ethereum blockchain. For example, if you’re a content creator, you could request payment in ETH.
- Trade another cryptocurrency for it. You could trade bitcoin or another cryptocurrency for Ethereum at an exchange.
- Mine for it. You could mine for ETH by dedicating computing power to solving problems on the blockchain, executing smart contracts and carrying out transactions. However, you might need a lot of processing power to start earning worthwhile returns, and the Ethereum mining system is being reworked, which makes returns on mining less certain.
- Other. There are other ways you might buy into the Ethereum blockchain, ranging from winning a bet online with ETH to participating in affiliate programs or buying into another system on the same blockchain. Ethereum’s features mean there might be more ways to find yourself holding ETH than other currencies such as bitcoin.
What are the special features of Ethereum and how do they work?
Ethereum’s aims to let users set up “smart contracts.” These can do almost anything a user wants, with anonymity, with no set point of failure and with complete trustworthiness and reliability.
This essentially lets you cut out the middleman in any kind of transaction, while still making the transaction with complete reliability, security and trustworthiness.
- It’s transparent. All parties can see the details and conditions of the transfer. It’s a transparent program that’s set up to do exactly what it says.
- It’s extremely flexible. You can program it to do almost anything you can imagine, such as making a transfer when specific conditions are met at a certain time in the future or dividing funds between different parties depending on other factors. There’s no real limit other than one’s need and imagination.
- It has all the usual blockchain benefits. Like other cryptocurrencies, you can make transfers relatively cheaply and quickly compared to going through banks or other third-party services.
This makes it possible to do things that simply weren’t an option before.
You can read our full guide to Ethereum here.
Imagine an international organisation that charges nominal membership fees, like an online fan club.
Ethereum’s blockchain and smart contracts system makes the impossible possible.
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How its special features affect the price of Ether
The coin itself, Ether (ETH), is the fuel for smart contracts. In simple terms, it’s used to pay the miners who donate computing power to process transactions and execute smart contracts.
Traders will need to decide whether the value of Ether will increase as more people start using smart contracts and the Ethereum blockchain becomes more widely used.
Quick glossary
Definitions
Ethereum. The name of the blockchain. Often used to refer to “Ether” and the system in general.
Ether (ETH). The coin on the Ethereum blockchain. Sometimes referred to as “gas” because it fuels transactions.
Ethereum classic (ETC). A similar type of coin that came about due to a previous hard fork on the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The network of miners whose computing power processes transactions and executes smart contracts
How to hold Ether
Like other cryptocurrencies, you hold ETH in a cryptocurrency wallet. However, not all wallets are compatible with it.
Some of the options include the following:
- The official Ethereum wallet
- Blockchain wallet
- Coinomi
- Exodus
It’s worth taking the time to compare the various options and features of each wallet if you plan on holding ETH.
Things to consider with Ethereum
There are several problems that might stand in the way of Ether’s price increasing.
Smart contracts are easier said than done
The first problem is that writing a “bulletproof” smart contract is easier in theory than in practice. The hard fork that created Ethereum Classic (or Ether depending on how you look at it) came about as the result of a loophole in a contract, which led to the theft of about US$50 million worth of ETH.
A report from Microsoft pointed out that a large-scale analysis of published contracts on the Ethereum blockchain would most likely reveal a lot of vulnerabilities.
This is being addressed with the creation of publicly available “templates” of sorts, and users simply getting more experienced with time.
Performance issues
All smart contracts are stored publicly on every node of the blockchain. This helps drive transparency and security, but also but can also lead to performance issues.
As more users get involved and smart contracts become increasingly common and complex, performance issues might get worse.
Worse performance can lead to slower transaction times and increased transaction costs, which could undermine the point of it all.
There are several proposals in place to address these issues, but to date there’s no solid timeframe or detailed plan.
Ethereum price forecast
When forecasting the price of Ether and the value of the Ethereum blockchain, you might want to consider the following:
- The potential applications of smart contracts and how likely they are to be widely used in the future.
- Whether current issues are likely to be resolved and how long it might take.
- Whether competition from other coins might impact the value of Ether.
- How many other tokens and applications will take advantage of the Ethereum blockchain.