The phrase “generational wealth” gets thrown around a lot in crypto, but it generally refers to what you can get from an asset that has enough gas in the tank to multiply in value many times over, even if it takes a long time. Ethereum (ETH +0.68%) is a natural candidate for being that kind of wealth-building investment, as it has already stood the test of time and made many of its early investors quite rich. Today, with a $280 billion market cap, Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency.

But can it actually deliver on its big growth potential by becoming a financial technology that’s widely used for real-world applications?

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Real-world use cases tend to prefer faster chains

One problem right off the…