Ethereum (ETH) is the 2nd highest market cap coin and has a bright future, but it won't be a completely smooth ride.

Firstly, let's be clear - Ethereum is the blockchain and ETH is the token.  The token is just like any other, it can be used to buy and sell stuff or simply HODLED as a store of value.

This article is about Ethereum the blockchain.

Strengths

The biggest strength of Ethereum is that it was the first blockchain to be programmable.  This means that developers can can use it to build applications known as DApps (Decentralised Applications).

This is what has enabled the Smart Contract feature.  A set of rules are applied to a transaction and the user can be assured that the contract and all it's requirements have been met - each and every time.  They are trustworthy, meaning they will always run as programmed and they can be decentralised, meaning that no person or entity controls them.

Ethereum has thousands of DApps being developed in all sorts of markets - crypto wallets, financial applications, games and many more.  

The Ethereum community ìs the largest and most active community in the world who work collectively to improve and grow the blockchain.

Weaknesses

Scalability is a big problem for Ethereum.  At 5 transactions per second, it's not setting any records.  Developrs are currently working on a number of initiatives to improve performance - plasma, sharding, the ridein network and changing the consensus mechanism from POW (Proof of Work) to POS (Proof of stake).

The change from POW to POS is a very contentious issue - some even believe it is not even possible at this late stage in Ethereum's life cycle.

Well written smart contracts are a positive, but poorly written code is a real liability as experienced when a hacker stole $50 million from the original DAO in 2016 due to bad coding

Opportunities

Assuming they can overcome the scalability issues, Ethereum has great potential.  The ability to have intelligent contracts combined with currency in a single transaction is truly gamechanging.

Threats

Technology is a constantly threatened market space.  There is always new technology challenging your space in the market.  

Competitive blockchains like Tron, Qtum, NEO, Cardano and others, if they can overcome the scalability issues and offer similar features to Ethereum 

Conclusion

The force of Vitalik Buterin's personality and his high profile is a positive for Ethereum overall.  I personally feel that Ethereum is going to be a real force in future of blockchain.