First generation of blockchain technology was represented by Bitcoin. Bitcoin solved an idea about creation of decentralized money, so when Jamie and Christine want to send value to each other there would be a mechanism that allows doing that without involving a trusted third party (banks). As we know Bitcoin eventually turned out to be a very successful experiment, however, transactions between Jamie and Christine can have more than just the active moving money associated with them. With Bitcoin we solved only: who sends, how much he sends, and to who he sends.
But there is a story behind every transaction, and some transactions come with terms and conditions. E.g. Jamie wants to send money, IF and only IF, Christine does something for him.
As a result, Ethereum was created in 2014 and has brought a programming language to the blockchain. A second generation blockchain essentially allows smart contracts to be written, so when Jamie wants to send money to Christine, all these additional terms and conditions can be built in to the transaction. With that we were able to apply blockchain to broader use cases, and Ethereum also became a huge success.
Unfortunately, with project expanding more and more issues were displayed. We realized, Ethereum will not be albe to scale for millions of users, so how can something like that serve as a world computer? What about governance? Every dispute results in a hard fork. Imagine every political dispute would result in a new country created. There is a need for a proper voting system in order to prevent hard forks happening all the time. Also, as blockchains are becoming more mainstream there will be a greater need for a pleasant development experience, and Ethereum just doesn't deliver that.
Third generation blockchains should contain solutions to problems witnessed in previous generations. All the above issues should be addressed, and solved. Technology is evolving. EOS, Cardano, IOTA, ICON, and others, are approaching these concepts with different methods, new methods, and they are doing a pretty good job. First, they are the youngest projects out there, so they are still in the early phases of their development. Second, their structure is more complicated, and as such, it is reasonable to estimate that this kind of projects take more time on average to result in a working product. If third generation blockchains manage to deliver, and I believe they eventually will, they will be a different beast.
At that point, to use technology as old as Bitcoin is, is quite frankly, unreasonable, and probably stupid. If big investors realize that, and I am sure they do, than they also understand that moon and lambo can only come from Ethereum and Bitcoin. Because, only projects with utility value out there are those two. Other potential big coins are all works in progress and a long way from a working product, they are valued purely on speculations. Ethereum and Bitcoin still have the ability to completely dominate the market, but why would big investors want to invest in them, if we speculate that third generation will completely outperform older versions.
It is impossible to predict what will happen, but, scenario where Bitcoin and Ethereum price will stay under 10k, and dipping even further down for a long time, untill first out of the third generation coins deliver us everything they promised, definitely has a decent chance happening. In my opinion Bitcoin and even Ethereum, in today versions, have absolutely 0% chance to survive in 3-4 years.
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