The past decade has been marked by an avid interest in cryptocurrencies, whose number currently exceeds 1,800 in a market valued at more than $200 billion. Most of the media attention and trading activity seem to be reserved for the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), but corporate interest lies predominantly with Ethereum (ETH) – the second largest digital coin by market capitalization. Coming out almost five years after Bitcoin, ETH has captured the attention of businesses as its network supports faster and cheaper transactions and a functionality believed to have a hugely disruptive potential for almost all industries: smart contracts. The Ethereum blockchain and the capabilities it offers have come to be regarded as particularly promising drivers of innovation in the financial service sector, with some of the biggest Wall Street names rallying behind the project, notes acclaimed forex broker and dedicated philanthropist Pablo Soria de Lachica. Although cryptocurrencies are in the spotlight, it is…