Bitcoin may have been the first cryptocurrency to get mainstream attention, but rival currency ether has gained more than 2,000 percent so far in 2017.While bitcoin has captured the attention of currency traders and investors, the Ethereum ether blockchain was designed with additional features intended to appeal to the corporate world. This corporate appeal coupled with backing from powerhouses such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intel Corporation(NASDAQ: INTC) has some onlookers speculating that ether will actually overtake bitcoin in market cap by the end of 2018.“What we’ve seen in ethereum is a much richer, organic developer ecosystem develop very, very quickly, which is what has driven ethereum’s price growth, which has actually been much more aggressive than bitcoin,” Polychain Capital CEO Olaf Carlson-Wee said in May.But while Polychain is calling for Ethereum to overtake bitcoin in size by the end of 2018, others say it may happen even sooner. Fred Wilson, co-founder and managing partner at Union Square Ventures, recently said Union Square expects Ethereum’s market cap to surpass bitcoin’s “by the end of the year.”Related Link: Battle Of The Cryptos: Bitcoin Vs. EthereumWhile bitcoin primarily serves as a currency for consumer payment transactions, the primary feature of Ethereum that has drawn the interest of corporations is its support of smart contracts. Smart contracts are computer algorithms that automatically execute the terms of a contract as soon as the contract’s conditions are met. For example, Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE: BCS) has used this type of technology for derivatives trading.Incredibly, the earliest Ethereum investors received their initial stakes less than three years ago. In the time since, the Ethereum story has taken lots of twists and turns and investors have endured an incredible amount of volatility. However, those early investors with the stomach to hold onto their stakes have been handsomely rewarded.If you’re just now getting up to speed on the Ethereum story, Invezz recently created the infographic below of Ethereum’s entire history in a nutshell: