The Most Interesting Use Cases for Ethereum (Hint: not its use as a currency)

One of the most common misconceptions in this space is that currency is the primary use case for crypto. Some people believe, for example, that ETH must succeed as a currency for it to ultimately succeed. This is a common belief, especially among newcomers, but even among people who have been in the space for years. I'd like to help dispel this myth.

ETH's primary use cases are:

1. as pristine trustless collateral used in DeFi
2. as a capital asset (staking)
3. as a confiscation-resistant and inflation-resistant store of value (EIP1559 / the burn / triple halvening)
4. as a commodity (gas for transactions)

Note, these are the use cases for ETH. The use cases for Ethereum (the network) are vast and cannot be completely enumerated in a post like this.

While ETH is used today as a currency for NFTs, that is because NFTs grew up within the Ethereum ecosystem. The use case of currency will likely persist and grow, but it is the least interesting aspect of ETH.