A top exec at one of America's oldest banks explains why Ethereum holds so much promise

pulse

July 7, 2017 4:56 PM

Ethereum is the new blockchain on the block.

Cryptocurrencies have been red-hot lately. The price of bitcoin and an ether token, for instance, have been on a tear and are up 121% and 490%, respectively, since April 6.

Ether tokens, which are built on ethereum blockchain, are newer to the crypto-scene than bitcoins, which can trace their origins back to 2009.

Mike McGovern, the new at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co, one of the oldest private banks in the US, thinks one blockchain is clearly superior.

"When looking at bitcoin blockchain versus Ethereum, there's no doubt Ethereum is superior," McGovern told Business Insider in a recent phone interview.

Brown Brothers Harriman has been working on blockchain for five years. It started with an R&D center in Krakow, Poland.

One reason why McGovern thinks Ethereum is better is because its cheaper.

"It doesn't cost as much to mine ether tokens, because it requires less electricity than bitcoin," he said.

McGovern's second reason relates to the original purpose of the two blockchains that power the currencies.

Bitcoin was designed to be a currency from the start. Vitalik Buterin, a Russian native and young programmer, however, founded Ethereum as a platform on which two parties could enter into a contract without a third party, according to Paul McNeal, a Bitcoin evangelist and long-time cryptocurrency investor.

survey recently cited by Popper in The New York Times

mine Ethereum

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