Ethereum has started 2019 on strong form. Its native Ether cryptocurrency gained 10 per cent in the first week of January, and has doubled in value since bottoming out at $75 in mid-December. It has usurped Ripple to reclaim the latter’s title as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency. Traders are snapping up the currency ahead of next week’s hard fork, which will see the Constantinople update applied to the blockchain. At the same time, Constantinople will delay the so-called ‘difficulty bomb’ – the process of gradually increasing the complexity of mining until it becomes unprofitable. This will help to keep the ... (full story)