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<h2>The Snack:</h2>
Ethereum's token, Ether (ETH), is the "gas" of the ethereum blockchain. While Ether can be traded the same as other cryptoassets, its primary value lies in its smart contracts and running distributed apps (Dapps) on its blockchain. The more Dapps, the greater the need for Ether, and hence the potential increase in its value.

<h2>The Entree:</h2>
Many enterprises are looking at using the ethereum blockchain to handle transactions and applications. Last month it was announced that over 80 companies have now joined the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance to both back the currency and contribute to the development of its blockchain.

One of the key features of ethereum is the implementation of "smart contracts." These contracts allow code to be a final arbitrator in decision making. The code does not change and the decisions remain the same. Unlike some other blockchains, this eliminates the use of third party escrow and validation which not only greatly reduces transaction time and cost, but enables peer-to-peer agreements to be fulfilled - without involving anyone else.

Initially, enterprises stand to gain the most from adoption of the ethereum blockchain, as they can handle millions of transactions a day. Any cost or time savings that can be achieved will result in a potentially huge cost savings in both time and money.

It is easy to envision a time in the not-too-distant future where a majority of applications ranging from mobile to enterprise will utilize the ethereum blockchain to handle transactions. One simple concept is that mobile games will start using Ethereum, or one of its descendants, to manage in-game purchases. I believe this is what DigiByte is positioning itself for, but they have not been a font of information or updates, so much remains to be seen.

The markets are down a fair amount this past week but before the decline, ethereum's market cap almost matched Bitcoin's. At the time of this post ethereum is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $25 billion and 93 million ETH in circulation. Bitcoin, the current number one, has a market cap of $39.7 billion. 

Given that it's the end of the quarter and there are impending forks coming in a month, we may see continued weakness in these cryptoassets until things get sorted out a bit more, but the long-term picture still looks good.

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