Can the coin regain momentum?

Ergo is a proof-of-work (PoW) smart contract platform known for its no pre-mine or no initial coin offering start, peer-reviewed academic approach that is research driven and its relationship with the Cardano network.

Ergo has an experienced team behind it with co-founders Alexander Chepurnoy

and Dmitry Meshkov being an alumni of blockchain research company IOHK, the entity behind Cardano. According to Ergo’s website, Chepurnoy was also the co-founder of leading blockchain oracle, Chainlink formerly known as smartcontract.com.

The network’s native token ERG has gained over 56% in the past year, as of 11 February, despite experiencing a bearish cycle since September 2020.

Let’s look at the project and the latest Ergo crypto price predictions for 2022 and beyond.

What makes Ergo different?

Despite the growing popularity and industry migration towards the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, Ergo is built on Bitcoin’s PoW consensus and an unspent transaction output (UTXO) accounting model.

Ergo said in its white paper that PoW was chosen for its widely studied protocols, high security guarantees and user friendliness.

“The idea of the Ergo platform is to implement ready-to-use ideas keeping the network truly decentralised. It may be called a ‘blockchain 1.1’ implementation – a major update to blockchain technology instead of revolutionary breaking changes,” the company said.

Ergo has made tweaks to the legacy PoW consensus to utilise a self-developed unique PoW consensus protocol called Autolykos. The changes are aimed at solving PoW-related problems that allow ASIC-equipped miners to solve PoW puzzles orders faster than CPU or GPU-equipped competitors.

With Autolykos, Ergo looks to neutralise the threat of mining pools controlling more than 51% of the computational power of a network, threatening decentralisation and security.

Ergo’s unique take on PoW is most well represented by its storage rent implementation, through which the network aims to reintroduce stagnant and lost coins into circulation in order to support the sustainability for future mining rewards.

According to Ergo’s storage rent protocol, ERG holders will have to pay a fee of about 0.14 ERG for every UTXO box that is not spent within a four-year period. However, the storage rent protocol is not yet initiated.

With block rewards diminishing over time for hard-capped PoW cryptocurrencies like BTC and ERG, miners have to solely rely on network transaction fees after the token production quota is complete. Via the storage rent protocol, Ergo aims to provide additional incentives for its miners.

“Miners are the security layer for the proof-of-work blockchain and it is of the utmost importance to provide economic incentives for miners to maintain and sustain the network. Storage fees are designed to add a layer of predictability for future block rewards,” said Ergo.

“Storage rent is an innovative and novel solution that aims to increase holder interaction while striking a balance between digital scarcity and long-term incentives,” added Ergo.

Another major differentiator for the network is Ergo’s conception with no pre-mine, no initial coin offering and no venture capitalist funding, which is considered a big draw for decentralisation purists.

What is an ERG coin?

ERG coin is the native token of the Ergo smart contract platform.

According to Ergo’s white paper, ERG emission (production and release) is scheduled to complete within the first eight years from its genesis block (ie, 1 July 2019), after which miners will only receive ERG from gas fees. In comparison, bitcoin emission is scheduled to end in the year 2140.

Ergo says the storage rent fee component of its protocol makes it possible for Ergo to execute a short emission schedule.

“Miners will be highly incentivised to secure the network even in the absence of a block reward subsidy and this will lead to a more stable mining reward than just relying on transaction fees alone which miners will also receive,” Ergo said in reference to its storage rent fee protocol.

ERG has a hard-capped supply of 97 million coins. ERG is used to carry out any transaction on the Ergo blockchain and used to reward miners.

According to Ergo, ERG started without any coins in circulation and the entire coin supply will be minted during the first eight years of Ergo mainnet.

However, in November 2021, Ergo proposed an increase in the years of emission until 2057, while maintaining the same capped supply.

Currently, the circulating supply of ERG coin stands at more than 32 million while its total supply exceeds 35.3 million, data from CoinMarketCap showed.

Ergo coin analysis: Latest price action

According to the ERG coin price chart, the token is trading at $3.56, as of 11 February 2022. ERG coin is the 380th biggest cryptocurrency and holds a market capitalisation of about $114m, according to CoinMarketCap.

In the past year prior to 11 February 2022, ERG token price jumped 56.71% from a closing price of $2.31 on 10 February 2021 to $3.62 on 10 February 2022. It hit a 52-week high of $19.60 on 18 May. ERG’s 52-week low stands at $1.24, set on 14 February 2021.

ERG coin value has seen selling pressure recently and has fallen over 12% in the past month.

Ergo coin news: Affinity with Cardano

Members of the Cardano community seem to have affinity for the Ergo blockchain due to their shared principles for decentralisation and a research-driven approach, compatibility from using a similar extended UTXO (eUTXO) ledger model and Ergo’s partnership with Emurgo, one of the founding entities of Cardano.

In the second half of 2021, Ergo launched a beta version of its decentralised exchange (DEX) called ErgoDEX, which is designed to be compatible with the Cardano network.

ErgoDEX is still under development and interoperability with Cardano is expected in 2022, a blog post said. Ergo is planning to introduce decentralised finance (DeFi) lending services on its DEX and is considering introducing an ErgoDEX token. 

In 2021, Ergo introduced its first stablecoin called SigUSD on its network. Ergo’s first metaverse called SigmaValley launched its land sale auction in mid-January 2022. Meanwhile, the network’s first initial decentralised token offering platform called ErgoPad initiated its final token sale in January. 

Ergo also has its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace called Ergo Auction House, which in its latest update brought in royalty features to artists and options to list in tokens other than ERG.

Ergo (ERG) price prediction: 2022-2030

According to a short-term Ergo crypto price prediction from Coin Codex (as of 11 February), the value of the token could drop over 2% to $3.46 by 16 February 2022. CoinCodex added that technical indicators showed the current sentiment for ERG as bearish, while the fear and greed index indicated neutral among ERG investors.

“Based on our Ergo forecast, it’s now a bad time to buy ERG,” said CoinCodex.

Ergo price prediction from algorithm-based forecasting service Wallet Investor (as of 11 February) suggested the token can be a “profitable investment option”. Wallet Investor expected the Ergo token price to reach $10.752 by February 2023 and to over $37 by February 2027.

According to Price Prediction ERG/USD forecast, the token could hit an average price of $4.98 in 2022. ERG/USD was expected to reach a maximum price of $16.81 in 2025 and $112.86 in 2030.

Digital Coin expected the Ergo token price to trade at $4.88 in 2022. Its Ergo crypto price prediction saw the token hit $7.62 in 2025 and $16.78 in 2030.

When looking for Ergo future price prediction, bear in mind that analysts’ and algorithm-based predictions can be wrong. Algorithm-based predictions are based on analysis of past performance, which does not guarantee future results.

It’s essential to do your own research and always remember that your decision to trade should depend on your attitude to risk, your expertise in the market, and your portfolio spread. You should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

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