Ethereum can be used as a platform towards another projects. To give you an idea regarding that, if you know Binance Coin. It's a known altcoin today which has started itself on Ethereum Smart Contract. And when they've became stable, they've made their own chain/mainnet.
It's like a project that you can create another project through it. And with the latest updates about it is the 2.0. Which makes it become a proof of stake coin, where transactions will no longer be confirmed or mined by GPUs but by wallets that has the eligible amount of Ethereum.
So Ethereum is more of like an adoption tool whereby altcoins can emerge from its blockchain once they have reached a certain market cap?? Am I right?
ie etherem isn't really aiming to be an everyday-use currency, rather more of a crypto adoption pathway? And from Tash's reply, I assume many of these adoption schemes haven't been entirely trustworthy?
No, it's not about merging. It's about that certain altcoin have been built through Ethereum's smart contract. And once they are already built, they become an ERC20 token. Most of the tokens that are built under Ethereum's network are called by that number, ERC20. Before, Ethereum was good as a medium of payment because you can use it with a very cheap transaction fee. But because a lot have changed, demand, miners fee, network traffic or congestion, it made the fees higher. But it being a platform to make new projects, it's the simplest description of it although it's also a good coin to hold.