While investors around the world, particularly in Japan, are buying up any digital currency at an unprecedented rate, a new market sector in this space has just begun. Ethereum offers another arrow in its quiver that Bitcoin does not, and it is becoming quite the hot investment in its first week. Are you in the right place at the right time?
If you want to send Bitcoin to someone, you have to enter a public key address that no one will remember, or even really want to use.
You’ll begin by copying and pasting a fairly random set of numbers and letters like “0xffF067E7ebe44Cc949C1c49Ca069BCFb4022b5fc.” This is not so much of a problem as it is a phase of early development Bitcoin needs to grow out of, like diapers or training wheels.
"Ethereum has hit this next level of usability and development, as of May 4, with the new Ethereum Name Service (ENS) run through a website. This provides Ethereum users with the ability to cherry pick their name, or even a famous name, add .eth and have Ether sent to them in a much less technical, more familiar way, like sending an email to someone’s address."
Wouldn’t you like to receive your Bitcoins at “yourname.eth”? This new Ethereum address extension option will work with a user’s Ethereum address as a destination or a smart contract, which is Ethereum’s reason extant.
Prices for these extensions are moving and are ostensibly being held for future sales by investors. For example, “donaldtrump.eth” is selling for almost $3,000. Impress your friends and get a “Kanye.eth” to receive your Ether or a “DallasCowboys.eth” to show your fanhood. Deposits on future releases have ranged up to 30,000 ETH, which is equivalent to $2,700,000.
To own a domain, a Vickrey auction is used where bids are sealed and the highest bidder wins, but only pays the bid of the second highest bidder. The top prices, as of writing late on Thursday, include “freemarket.eth” (14,500 ETH) and “exchange.eth” (12,888 ETH).
"Less than 15 percent of the domain names have hit the marketplace, so there is still time for you to take advantage of this new “digital gold rush.”