Trading in digital currencies such as Bitcoin or Ether has become an established practice but using them as a payment means is still a slow process. ETH Professor Srdjan Capkun and his team have now developed a system that makes cryptocurrency payments secure, fast and practical.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple used to be nothing more than an experimental platform for critics of the system, but this has long ceased to be the case. These currencies have now become an established investment strategy. Today, some 5,000 digital currencies are available. The most popular is Bitcoin, which now has over 18 million units in circulation – that’s equivalent to more than 126 billion euros. Ethereum, or Ether for short, is the second-largest digital currency and has a total value of around 20 billion euros.
However, transactions with cryptocurrencies are still very slow and therefore not suitable for everyday purchases. Bitcoin users, for example, have to wait up to a whole hour for a payment to be approved. In the case of Ether, which was developed as a full-value substitute for conventional money from the outset, things move faster, with a payment taking three minutes to be confirmed.
Source: “Making cryptocurrency payments fast and secure”, Santina Russo, Zurich ETH News
