Ethereum’s slow speeds and high cost are also a reason why some startups are issuing their tokens elsewhere. Alpharetta, Georgia-based Ternio offered its coin, TERN, on Stellar last year, because it needed Stellar’s faster network, Ternio Chief Executive Daniel Gouldman said. The company is about to go live with its prepaid crypto debit card.
"If you are at a McDonald’s drive-through, and waiting 20 minutes because the Ethereum network is overloaded at the moment... With Stellar it’s fast and cheap," Gouldman said. "For what we were trying to accomplish, it was a much better product." Transactions running on Stellar costs less than Ethereum transactions, he said, making it much more attractive for users.
Ethereum may still face its biggest challenge. Binance, operator of the world’s biggest crypto exchange, plans to launch Binance Chain within several months. Binance has already lined up 10 projects whose coins currently run on Ethereum, but plan to migrate over, said Zhao Changpeng, Binance’s chief executive.
"This year we’ll work very hard to drive adoption," Zhoa said.
Don’t count Ethereum out just yet. The vast majority of token offerings still flock to Ethereum, where they believe they can raise the most funds. The project has a huge fan base and developer support.
More importantly, Ethereum developers are working to improve the network’s throughput and transaction speeds, with major improvements expected within months.
"Ethereum’s scaling plan is a multiyear process and exceptionally difficult to execute, so developers are trying out other options," Kling said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.