The Ethereum Blockchain, according to icowatch, has been used by over 82% of all the ICOs (5,200+) that have been launched to date. Many of the companies which have launched Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are still building their platforms and businesses so are not carrying out transactions on the Ethereum Blockchain.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, spoke to the Toronto Star and made some worrying comments about fees, adoption, scalability and that he thought the Ethereum Blockchain was overloaded. If this Blockchain is at its limits, it will potentially slow the adoption by institutions of this Blockchain. However, Buterin believes that Ethereum’s challenges, particularly its capacity, can be addressed by using Proof of Stake.

The issue is, that currently, Ethereum Blockchain requires every computer/node to verify every transaction. If this can be altered so that each computer verifies, on average, a certain number of transactions (e.g. not every transaction), whilst it would make the Ethereum Blockchain less secure, but it has the potential to reduce costs by a factor of 100.

These growing pains are inevitable, and not all transactions need to happen in almost real-time. After all, most analogue paper-based processes that many businesses currently rely on can take days to be recorded and be completed.