Ethereum. Some people don’t fancy it. Just mentioning it in a well-known sub on Reddit can get you instantly banned.

But it seems that it is rather acknowledged and loved here at Publish0x. We love to gripe about its notoriously exorbitant gas fees; that’s why we rejoice collectively when gas fees become a steak inexplicably. We approve of Vitalik Buterin, applauding his magnanimous nature and raising our eyebrows at the thought of Soulbound tokens. We swear by smart contracts upon which the Ethereum ecosystem is built on. We also love the layer 2 scaling solutions, notably Arbitrum and Optimism.

Somehow, along the way, Ethereum has elevated its status. Referred to as Digital silver in crypto’s infancy, it has ascended to rub shoulders with Bitcoin. Both are affectionately known as the blue chips of crypto; most investors are obsessed about accumulating them.

And with the Ethereum merge in sight, it seems that there is an even heightened level of expectation around it. Oh, we know that the merge won’t immediately reduce gas fees. But those of us who have staked it in the past are now looking forward to unstaking it and reaping their rewards. The difficulty bomb that is postponed time and time again is still something of concern - but people seem confident that it would not be a disruptive factor.

What is your relationship with crypto? Are you like me and bought ETH as your first crypto when you first ventured into crypto? Or did you grudgingly add it to your portfolio sometime later in your investment journey - and have come to like it? How have your opinions about ETH evolved through its journeying from PoW to PoS?