We can all agree that NFTs and DEFIs constitute to the high rise of the value of Ethereum in 2021, but unfortunately the high gas fees was the dent in the technology because of its proof of work mechanism. If only Vitalik Buterin and other co creators of Ethereum thought of the proof of stake mechanism before finalizing on the proof of work. Well it’s technology is something I can comfortably call a blockchain eye opener for other blockchains. I might be wrong but we have to give credit to the Ethereum blockchain for its impact on the crypto blockchain technology. 

![CFC13C44-4E2B-4A68-93E8-7C62CFCF2F89.jpeg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmbfkd3Ph8J2sr4CvYUgG2huifSYtAMr1YXXf2QGHu8UYr/CFC13C44-4E2B-4A68-93E8-7C62CFCF2F89.jpeg)
[source](https://www.pexels.com/photo/an-empty-gas-station-3602009/)

I might be wrong but the Ethereum blockchain should be the first blockchain where NFTs got minted from. NFTs and DEFIs got so utilized and optimized in 2020 and 2021 the demand for Ethereum increased thereby getting miners and block validators more active. These miners and block validators are humans who need to feed and pay for their electricity bills because they spend their money and time mining the blockchain and validating blocks. They wouldn’t want to be at loss therefore increase in gas fees, that’s just business, everyone is in it for gains. 


But this space is filled with people who also don’t want to always spend exuberant amount of money on something meant to be really cheap. This has struck the demand for alternative means, and driven competitive environment for creation of better blockchains. Now we have other blockchains subbing Ethereum and using it as a perfect PR in promoting their project. You must have heard the word “Ethereum Killer”, so many times, yeah that’s how they intend to get the attention of their users.  


It worked for Solana right? It was labelled the Ethereum killer and how it’s going to take over Ethereum and be the most used blockchain for NFTs. Ethereum has been promising us for almost forever on how they will be an upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 which is expected to have a proof of stake mechanism, Wen Proof Of Stake?!!! 


Reports have shown that the transaction fees for Ethereum has had a 6 months drop. One of the major reasons for this is the drop in the demand for NFTs. We have seen updates on how the trading volume on opensea has dropped, what does this mean? This probably means that people are choosing other blockchains with lower gas fees to mint their NFTs. So what does this say about the future of Ethereum’s price. The price of Ethereum has been ranging between $3200 and $2800, which  I guess might take a while before we see the all time high get surpassed. Except we magically wake up one day get an update from the Ethereum team that Ethereum has been upgraded to Ethereum 2.0. This will definitely make people rush to buy Ethereum driving the price higher. 



But what happens to the miners and validators, those people have turned it to their source of livelihood. Well I guess my only advise is to sell all their mining machines buy Hive, power it up and earn curation rewards from them. But then, who will they sell it to, since the machine might be useless to them, except there are other things you can do with these machines. 

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