In its latest report dedicated to cryptocurrencies “Crypto: A new asset class ?, Goldman Sachs’ research division focuses on Bitcoin but also on Ethereum, making an interesting parallel. “A blockchain platform like Ethereum could potentially become a big market for those who sell trusted information, just as Amazon does today with consumer goods.” The Goldman Sachs report suggests that Ethereum, currently the second largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market capitalization of around $ 250 billion – compared to Bitcoin’s $ 660 billion – has a “high chance” of overtaking Bitcoin in the function of ” dominant store of value ”, as the Amazon of information. The Ethereum ecosystem is in fact represented by a decentralized platform for the creation and publication of defined smart contracts, or the so-called ‘smart contracts’: this platform offers various tools for the creation of new applications. It must be said that Ethereum’s overtaking of Bitcoin, in terms of prices, is already taking place, if we consider that, in the last 12 months, the price has flown by about 1000%, compared to + 300% of Bitcoin. Underpinning the value of digital currency has been the growing popularity of decentralized finance, which aims to use ether technology to also create products that replace conventional financing tools, such as loans and interest.
In this regard, Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs writes in the report that, in the case of Ethereum, “both the terms of the smart contract, therefore of the smart contract (the so-called code) and the status of the contract (whether it has been executed or not) they are information that is validated in the Ethereum blockchain. The result is that the counterparty to the contract cannot claim the transfer of funds without a consensus in the network that certifies that the contract has been effectively executed ”.
And, according to Carrie, “the crypto assets that will have a greater value will be the ones that will help to verify the most crucial information of the economy”. Over time, in fact, Goldman Sachs expert continues, “the decentralized nature of the network will lessen the concerns related to storing personal data on the blockchain. A digital profile may contain personal data such as ownership of assets, your medical record and even intellectual property rights. Since this information is immutable – in the sense that it cannot be changed without consensus – the information of trust can then be tokenized and exchanged “. And this is where Carrie talks about Ethereum as a possible “big market for those who sell trusted information”, just as Amazon does today with the products of retailers “. The hypothesis becomes even more concrete if we consider that “Ethereum 2.0 should increase its capacity to 3,000 transactions per second (tps), with sharding – which will increase the Proof of Stake (PoS) system of Ethereum 2.0 through parallel verification of transactions – will be able to increase capacity up to 100,000 transactions per second ”. To get an idea of what this means, the Goldman Sachs strategist recalls that Visa has a capacity of 65,000 transactions per second but typically only manages 2,000 of them.