Ethereum has had a very interesting history - mostly good, with some minor setbacks along the way - since its launch in 2015. A very positive launch, some great development changes on the way, the notorious DAO hard fork, delays to Ethereum 2.0’s sharding and casper upgrades, and just being the basis for so many other tokens - Ethereum is in the news for big reasons.

Smart contracts changed the cryptocurrency market and it’s all thanks to Ethereum. The platform has set the tone for the development of so many other platforms and its scaling solutions are highly anticipated by developers in the blockchain ecosystem, who hope to take a thing or two away from it.

Ethereum is getting some competition from rival platforms like EOS and TRON, though it is still by far the most popular platform of its kind. TRON in fact proudly proclaims that it is the most active dapp platform on the world and it is working on creating a dapp hub, much like the Google Play store or iOS app store.

Now there is the question of whether or not Ethereum will remain relevant in the years to come, given that so many new projects are introducing new technology and existing ones are introducing new features.

1. Ethereum 2.0 Will Mark a Shift in Growth

Source: Ethub.io

But Ethereum has a few cards up its sleeves as well, and the prospects look good for it to keeps its crown. At the heart of this change is the upcoming sharding and casper upgrades, as a part of the shift to “Ethereum 2.0”. This will move Ethereum into a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm and greatly increase transaction processing capability.

Ethereum is currently in a tough formative transitional state as it prepares necessary solutions to get past the technical challenges that blockchains are currently experiencing. I think though that it is in a prime position to come out the victor, as it has done a lot to lay the groundwork for its use in the future.

2. Ethereum's Business Ecosystem is Solid

In that regard, the most important thing that Ethereum has done is expand the ecosystem from a business point of view - an example of this is the growth and expansion of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, which counts so many fantastic and established companies as its members - many of whom are working on encouraging Ethereum development and/or are building solutions and use cases.

Another good measure of Ethereum’s growth is the increasing amount of money that’s being locked up in decentralized finance services like lending platforms. This is where I think Ethereum’s utility truly lies - not as money but as something of programmable value that can be exchanged for different services.

3. Ethereum Remains the First Choice for Blockchain Development

However, the underlying change that I think is going to push Ethereum to the forefront is the energy that is driving development. SO MANY projects and dapps are being built on the blockchain and this will only increase, even outpacing EOS and TRON, because Ethereum has an air of legitimacy to the project that just cannot be competed with. If you’ve got Microsoft and Ernst and Young working on it, you know that there is a sense of belief in what you’re doing.

So what then is the next four years going to bring? A lot of changes - both to the platform itself and to the ecosystem that makes use of it. As the tech begins to mature and become suitable for a global scale of use, it will exponentially draw in more investors, developers and businesses, and set the stage for a decentralized future that covers finance, retail, identity management and so much more.