The cryptocurrency market is full of tall claims and lofty goals. Few coins end up providing any real-world utility, though, which is why Ethereum (ETH 2.81%) stands out. It’s the most popular blockchain network for decentralized finance (DeFi) services and stablecoins, and both have been growing rapidly.

If you have $1,000 to put into cryptocurrency, Ethereum is worth considering. And there’s a development on the horizon that could help it take a leap forward.

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A major network upgrade is scheduled for December

Ethereum developers have scheduled activation of the next upgrade, Fusaka, for Dec. 3. The crypto goes through upgrades regularly, but this is the largest since The Merge, when it switched from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism for more efficient transaction processing.

Fusaka should also improve the digital coin’s efficiency and deliver a better user experience. It will increase the amount of data that Layer-2 blockchains built on top of Ethereum can process, allowing those networks to process more transactions with lower gas fees.

The upgrade will also introduce peer-to-peer data availability sampling, which allows validators to confirm transactions from small data samples, eliminating the need to download full data sets.

Ethereum

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One of the main criticisms of Ethereum over the years has been its lack of efficiency, especially compared to some of its competitors. It’s not the fastest blockchain, and gas fees can get expensive during periods of high activity. The Fusaka upgrade addresses these technical limitations.

Ethereum has already been extremely successful. A faster, better version is an even more exciting crypto investment. As always, keep your own risk tolerance in mind when investing in cryptocurrencies.