I know a lot of people are hating on Ethereum blockchain at the moment and it's easy to see why when you start to use other ecosystems that have far more reasonable fee structures etc. (pretty much ANY ecosystem in fact 😂 including the one i'm posting on now!)
However, we shouldn't forget the significance of bringing programmable smart contracts and the potential this has to change the future of money and how we view it compared to it's current form.
Sure, it's a little scary to think that when we get the CBDC's (Central Bank Digital Currencies, think Chinas Digital Yuan) that this gives the banks/governments the ability to control our currency, to the degree of being able to program in expiry dates or to only allow the currency we are given to be used for specific types of purchases - e.g. you maybe given $50 which can only be spent on Fuel. Ironically this could actually give governments even more control over how we choose to spend - although there are so many other benefits that can potentially outweigh this.
One thing you may notice is that I have used the word "currency" rather than "Money" - if you are interested, theres a brilliant YT video by Mike Maloney explaining the difference - or @belimitmess has posted a D Tube version here: )
Anyhow - the point of this post was to point out the significance of Ethereum and how it has been a game changer in how we view transfers of value and the like by allowing us to set certain criteria for transfers.
One example is my daughter who is soon going to be old enough to drive. I'm intending to give her money towards buying a car however, using a smart contract, I could use a smart contract to specify that the money for the car would be released when she met certain criteria, e.g. attaining age 17 (the UK driving age), passing her Drivers Theory test and then finally passing her practical drivers test to get her licence.
The money would only be released once those criteria had been fulfilled and verified, I would be unable to change this as the funds would be locked within the smart contract.
I could specify that if these criteria aren't achieved by a certain date (her hitting age 20 for example) the funds would be transferred back to me.
A great way of incentivising certain behaviours - especially if you are thinking about your children going to college and wanting to incentivise them to complete their education or study hard to attain certain grades. This is to name a few very basic uses, the possibilities are endless.
Thinking in these terms totally changes your perspective on money/currency!
So what's this got to do with the title? Well, I though it may be interesting to know what some of the terms for different amounts of Ether are and what their Nicknames are (great for a pub quiz!)
Here's a list of the different units of Ether
You'll recognise these if you've ever transacted on Ethereum as you'll no doubt have baulked at the current "gas" fees in Gwei for using it to process a smart contract or purchase crypto on Uniswap and the like.
But did you know that the nicknames for each of these units represent people of great significance in the computing or programming world?
From Buterin to Lovelace and Wei Dai, it's a good reminder that actually the progress we've made is down to these people who broke the mould and revolutionised different aspects of our digital lives.
Next time you have to pay a gas fee, hopefully this will be a reminder to you of where it all started and how many hurdles, ideas and innovations have contributed to where we are today! 😊
Thanks for reading my post - the above tables/definitions are from Investopedia which is a great resource for anything finance related if you want to know more!
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STOPUnits of Ether huh. I totally forgot about that, I did know it in the past but damn is there always so much to absorb in the crypto world