Ethereum (ETH 3.15%) does have clear network effects right now in its favor, but there are also important risks for investors to consider. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "The Crypto Show," recorded on April 20, Fool.com contributors Jon Quast and Travis Hoium take a look at the state of Ethereum today.
Jon Quast: We are acknowledging risks to the Ethereum ecosystem, and I think that those risks are valid and worth considering, especially if you own Ethereum for example, or if you're using it in some way. The flip side of this is that blockchain cryptocurrencies, they do have very real -- I believe -- network effects. And so the more people that you can get to use your system, the better off that system is. One of the problems that we have is fragmentation, and so Ethereum does have clear network effects right now in its favor. So when you think about that, I would say that that one thing right there would say it's not "doomed," necessarily.
Travis Hoium: I just want to add too -- I think we may, in time, see these blockchains be used for different things. So we could see high-end art, for example, stay on Ethereum, because that's, you know, kind of where the money is and the legacy is. Whereas low-cost transaction stuff moves to Solana and maybe, I don't know, healthcare stuff moves to a different blockchain, and Avalanche is used for something else. And that's where something like Coinbase, having a multi-chain NFT system, and you know, multi-chains that they're working on under one account, could be really interesting because it could be one place to tie all this stuff together.
