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• Roland Kofler's Ethereum/Bitcoin Price Flipper

ETHEREUM

Ethereum is a Smart Contract platform running with a crypto currency named Ether. It features unstoppable programs that are tamper-proof: "Smart Contracts".

Ether became second crypto currency in market cap in March 2016, with the release of "Homestead" the Beta version of the Platform.

Market cap peaked on June 16th when it reached 1,676,000 USD After a series of hacks and attacks, the value shrank to 800,000 USD

With the Devcon2 conference the Ethereum technology showed its strong position in Fortune 500 companies as well as in a big ecosystem of startups betting on the platform.

2017 will be uncertain with the move from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake Consensus algorithms expected mid-year.

BITCOIN

Bitcoin is the leading crypto currency and the first example of a distributed consensus ledger technology called blockchain.

2016 was a strong year for Bitcoin. After two years of stagnation it market cap rose to 12MM USD in November, mastering such events of uncertainty as the miner's reward halving in June 2016 and despite ongoing division of the community over the block size parameter.

The fierce debate about this problem will make 2017 again a time of uncertainty. An initiative to do a blockchain fork (comparable to a secession in politics) could remove substantial marketcap from the main chain. If the debate is solved in consensus, though, new technologies like the lightning network and segwith could lead to a new boom for Bitcoin.