The Flippening: A Guaranteed Prophecy of Ethereum Triumph or An Unachievable Fantasy?
Bitcoin is almost synonymous with cryptocurrency, but that’s hardly fair in 2022 considering the high value of many altcoins, including Ethereum. Depending on which circles you move in, many investors believe it’s only a matter of time until Ethereum overtakes Bitcoins’s market value in an event dubbed “The Flippening” – but are these just the ramblings of Ethereum fanatics?
What Is The Flippening?
Ever since Bitcoin was recognized as a tradeable asset back in 2009, it’s dominated the crypto tables. In 2015, Ethereum entered the playing field and laid down the infrastructure for NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and decentralized finance (Defi).
There are two sides to the coin, with Bitcoin believers staying true to the claim that Bitcoin is the only true decentralized coin and it’ll remain king forever. Whereas, Ethereum followers trust in the power of smart contracts, predicting the eventual overtaking.
The Flippening first emerged on the popular crypto-supportive social network Reddit in 2017. The events prompting the creation of this hypothetical overtaking is Bitcoin’s dominance dropping from 95.88% to 51% between March and August of the same year.
Bitcoin’s Case
Bitcoin has a solid case for remaining on top because it had a six-year headstart over Ethereum and it’s the most trusted, in terms of mainstream adoption. The Bitcoin blockchain is tightly secured across more than 15,000 nodes and is easily the go-to cryptocurrency for large investors.
When Satoshi Nakamoto (real name unknown) created Bitcoin, he sealed its legacy by leaving it well alone and relying on community management for it to grow. Bitcoin is CEO’less – there is no one person leading the currency in either direction.
Bitcoin is often the first investment people make when they step into the cryptocurrency world, which is why the majority of quality exchanges begin their conversions by displaying Bitcoin. For example, if you try to convert currency at OKX.com, you will find that BTC is the default crypto.
Ethereum’s Case
Hitting back as a clear force to be reckoned with, there’s a strong case to be made in favor of Ethereum and “The Flippening”. To kick things off, Ethereum’s smart contract infrastructure is the bedrock for over 4,000 decentralized apps – a number that’s constantly growing.
Smart contracts were introduced in 2015 to facilitate wider blockchain functionality. In 2021, Ethereum brought in an estimated 3,920 developers to work on the Web3 side of the blockchain – making it the most active Web3 force. Thanks to the smart contract ecosystem, developers are able to innovate with NFT-based projects, exchanges, and other stablecoins. If you take a look at this report from CryptoSlam, you will see that Ethereum’s NFT sales sit at around $30 billion.
Ethereum benefits heavily from its NFT creation because it’s been able to capitalize on the gaming industry, which has seen a significant rise in blockchain play-to-earn games over recent years. Some of the most notable gaming projects on Ethereum include Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Ethermon, and Ember Sword. If more projects like this are built on the Ethereum platform, it brings The Flippening closer to fruition.
Despite Ethereum’s clear dominance in the smart contract space, there are other blockchains out there gaining speed including Binance, Solana, and Cardano. In order to overtake Ethereum, alternative blockchains must provide access to smart contract development space at a cheaper rate. However, thanks to the Ethereum Improvement Proposal, the blockchain switched gears and began burning tokens in attempts to reduce gas prices.
Bitcoin currently validates transactions through proof-of-work, which guzzles through energy and has sparked debate as to whether it’s viable to continue with Bitcoin – given the energy crisis and the current drive towards a greener planet. Ethereum has the edge here because they have leaders at the helm, which initiate solutions like The Merge.
The Merge
The Genesis layer of the Ethereum blockchain – the first generation still exists. However, it’s been merged with the second layer called the Beacon Chain, which works on proof-of-stake. The idea behind “The Merge” was to reduce energy-intensive mining methods. As we move forwards, The Merge paves the way for scalability and further improvements, which will boost the overall capacity of the Ethereum network.
To put this into simple terms. Ethereum miners are no more. Instead, they’ve been swapped out for stakers, which take care of the validation process. With The Merge underway, the expectation is that Ethereum will pull out of its deflationary period and into prosperity. The edge that Ethereum has over Bitcoin is no coin cap, meaning it can rise above.
Conclusion
People have been speculating about Ethereum’s crypto dominance for years now, but we’re likely still well away from The Flippening taking place. However, as with the nature of all things cryptocurrency, there’s never any true certainty, meaning the ball game is wide open.
