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Goldman Sachs says that Ethereum (ETH) could replace Bitcoin (BTC) as the dominant digital store of value.
In a new note to clients, the financial giant says that while BTC has the stronger brand, Ethereum likely has the highest number of real use cases, reports Business Insider.
But the bank does not see either Ether or Bitcoin taking over gold anytime soon. It says that the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies does not make these coins a direct competitor to safe-haven assets.
The note adds that the competition among different cryptocurrencies will likely prevent them from being viewed as a safe asset class.
“Gold is competing with crypto to the same extent it is competing with other risky assets such as equities and cyclical commodities. We view gold as a defensive inflation hedge and crypto as a risk-on inflation hedge.”
ETH is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, which is currently the leading development platform for smart contract applications.
The report also cites Bitcoin’s transaction speed as a potential hindrance. In its current form, Ethereum is only slightly faster than Bitcoin. That is set to change for Ethereum, however, with a series of scalability upgrades planned for the months and years to come.