PayPal Payment Gateway: In the cryptocurrency market, two of the largest assets by market capitalisation - Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) - are vying for investor favour, and the debate on whether ETH is a currency has reignited. Recently, Ryan Selkis, founder of Messari, a leading cryptocurrency researcher in the United States, released a weighty report called Cryptocurrency Outlook 2021, which included a section titled "ETH is not a currency". This opinion immediately caused a strong reaction from the ethereum community, and even some members of Messari's inner circle disagreed with their boss's view

In his report, Selkis makes a number of points: that there are fewer alternatives to BTC and potentially numerous alternatives to ETH; that ETH failed to maintain its reserve currency status during the ICO boom of 2017 and this year's DeFi (decentralised finance) boom; and that the demand for ETH by "smart money" is overstated, and that ETH is not often mentioned as a The demand for ETH by "smart money" has been overstated, and ETH is not often mentioned as a macro-hedging tool. In addition, ETH as an uncorrelated asset has been marginalised due to its correlation with BTC; ETH as an asset is difficult to grasp due to its changing narrative and the existence of three distinct investment theses; and ETH has not made headway in the packaged asset space as interest in synthetic BTC (and other assets) and their leverage on the Ether blockchain is growing It's not clear whether ETH 1.0 or ETH 2.0 will be the blockchain of record next year; the core blockchain of ETH 2.0 may lose some of its value as Ether transitions to a second version of "ETH 1.5 with rollups"; DeFi apps will capture more fees than the base layer protocols over time; the point is that you don't even need to know what you're talking about to get the most out of the blockchain. The point is, you don't even have to agree with the above threats, just know that these perceived threats will ultimately hurt ETH's currency premium.

However, Selkis emphasised that ETH "may well prove to be an excellent investment". He says: "A commodity that can secure transactions on the world's most valuable computing platforms (fuel for confinement and pledges for processing) and that can be used universally as collateral in the emerging financial system has tremendous value. I like ETH and hold a lot of it."

In addition, Selkis mentions Messari's senior research analysts Ryan Watkins and Wilson Withiam, who "have just written a bible on Ether 2.0" and who "at almost every point " disagree with the Selkis report's thesis on ETH. They argue that on a Proof-of-Work (PoW) chain, ETH "has store-of-value and commodity properties for use as currency and fuel." They also argue that ETH "will also have capital asset properties due to its use [for proof of equity]." They note: "ETH 2.0 will not only change the Ether blockchain, but also ETH as an asset. The introduction of pledges will make ETH a more productive asset than it was under PoW, and in addition to being fuel and currency on Ether, ETH will have native revenue generation opportunities."

According to them, this combination would give ETH unprecedented attributes of all three asset superclasses - capital assets, commodities and stores of value. They say, "It could also create an ongoing tug-of-war over the demand for ETH in each use case."

Ethernet fights back

Meanwhile, the debate made its way to the Bankless podcast this week, hosted by ETH supporters Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffman. The Bankless duo were ready to counter every point Selkis made for ETH, with Adams arguing that ethereum's market cycle is a beat slower than bitcoin. He responded to Selkis' argument that Bitcoin has no competitors as the dominant player, while Ether has many, arguing that the argument is "overblown.

While there are many so-called "ETH killers" that claim to be competitors to ETH, Adams says it is this centralisation that makes them weak competitors to Ether, which, according to Adams, has the advantage of being "credibly neutral". Adams argues that Ether's strength is its "credible neutrality," noting that it is not funded by venture capitalists or reserved for qualified investors.

Adams says that whichever way you look at it, what's really happening is that these so-called ETH killers, other smart contract platforms, are competing with each other and with the second layer of Ether, rather than Ether as a monetary asset. Bitcoin is caught up in this melee, and Ryan Sean Adams of Bankless argues that the largest cryptocurrencies are only good for holding and possibly trading, but as more and more whales and organisations use it, the transaction fees will make trading pointless.

On the other hand, Adams argues that Ether "has more surface area" that you can hold and trade, as well as an "economy of stablecoins" and a "trading economy based on Uniswap " not to mention non-homogenised tokens. He said, "Bitcoin simply doesn't have these different entry vectors."

Who's the winner?

Meanwhile, Selkis debated on the podcast that Bitcoin isn't a currency either, arguing that neither of them qualify as money in the traditional sense. But he argues that Bitcoin is somehow closer to a currency. He said, "Every token can be a currency, every stock can be a currency, and if you loosen the definition a little bit ...... what we're really talking about is which is the ultimate and best form of digital currency. Is it Bitcoin? Is it Ether? Is there any chance that Ether will overtake Bitcoin as the use case for this? The answer is no, at least not in the near future. If it does happen, I think there must be something very systematically wrong in the industry."

At the time of writing (15:05 UTC), ETH is trading at $662, up 7% on the day and 19% on the week. the price has risen by 41% in a month and 4,34% in a year. at the same time, the price of BTC stands at $23,083, up 12% from the previous day, up 271 TP3T. up 351 TP3T in a month and 2,411 TP3T in a year.

Meanwhile, BTC's 24-hour trading volume exceeded $47.4 billion today, compared to $15.9 billion for ETH.