Skip to main content
Ethereum

Ethereum

| CryptoPress |

Ethereum price

Ethereum

Ethereum is an open-source platform, designed to let people create applications that run exactly as programmed without any chance of fraud, censorship, or third-party interference.

Basic Info 

Name: Ethereum
Symbol: ETH
Initial release: 2015
Authors, Developers: Vitalik Buterin
Consensus algorithm: Proof-of-Work (PoW)
Website: https://ethereum.org/

Ethereum Ledger Information:

Type of issueunlimited
Block rewardETH 2.6 (approx.)
Block time15 sec (approx.)
Block explorerhttps://etherscan.io/
Circulating supplyeth 112,139,514 (August 11, 2020)

Ethereum Sub-units Denominations

Sub-units of Ether
Unitwei valueweiether value
wei1 wei110^-18 ETH
kwei10^3 wei1,00010^-15 ETH
mwei10^6 wei1,000,00010^-12 ETH
gwei10^9 wei1,000,000,00010^-9 ETH
microether10^12 wei1,000,000,000,00010^-6 ETH
milliether10^15 wei1,000,000,000,000,00010^-3 ETH
ether10^18 wei1,000,000,000,000,000,0001 ETH

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is the community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency, ether (ETH) and thousands of decentralized applications. Ethereum is open source, meaning that it can be improved by anyone. You can use ethereum to create new types of decentralized applications. Ether, the currency used to pay for decentralized applications, can be bought and sold on online exchanges.

Also, Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs “distributed applications” (dapps), or decentralized applications. Dapps allow for apps to run without a central authority or middleman. The program runs and updates itself, without a central server controlling it. Since ether is a currency that pays for decentralized apps, ethereum is a platform that allows for developers to create decentralized apps (dapps). Dapps are usually software projects (with a business model) that are run on a blockchain or the same technology that powers the cryptocurrency, ether. When users get paid for using a particular dapp, it goes into a user’s account, usually called Ether.

What is Ether?

Ether is the base currency of the Ethereum network. Every time you send money from one user to another, Ethereum does the processing. In exchange for your payment, you receive a number of “ethers.” Ether (ETH) are generated through a process called “mining.” Ethereum uses a proof of work system that periodically activates new ether. New ether is also generated through the use of contracts.

What is the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin?

Bitcoin and Ethereum are two of the most prominent cryptocurrencies today, but there are some important differences between them. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be introduced in 2009, and it is still the most valuable cryptocurrency today. Ethereum, on the other hand, was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2015.

By now, it’s safe to say we’re all familiar with Bitcoin. It’s the first cryptocurrency that came into existence, and it’s the most popular one by far. But Ethereum has a lot of similarities with Bitcoin — and some are even calling it Bitcoin 2.0. 

Ethereum and bitcoin are two different cryptocoins. Ether is the currency of the Ethereum platform, whereas bitcoins are the currency of the Bitcoin platform. The biggest difference between cryptocurrencies is that bitcoin is nothing more than a currency, while Ethereum features a Turing-complete virtual machine that can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes.

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency platform, while bitcoin is just a cryptocurrency, created and held electronically.

Ethereum is a decentralized platform that is used to program smart contracts. It’s open source, so anyone can use it to create new decentralized applications. Ethereum can be programmed to run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.

Ethereum brief history

In mid-2013, a young, Russian-Canadian programmer, Vitalik Buterin, decided to program a decentralized application (DApp), which can operate outside of the control of any central authority. Ethereum was the first of many crypto-currencies to emerge. Perhaps the first of a somewhat close class was Bitcoin in 2008 — Ethereum is the second of these cryptocurrencies to emerge, and most recently, with the mass migration to mobile computing and smart devices, Ethereum’s rise is increasing exponentially.

A team of Gavin Wood, Mihai Alisie, Amir Chetrit, Jeffrey Wilke, Joseph Lubin (ConsenSys), Charles Hoskinson (Cardano), and Anthony Di Iorio, was the first to discuss and support the project. However it wasn’t until August 2014 that Ethereum successfully raised over $ 16 million in an initial coin offering (ICO).

In 2015, Buterin presented the initial development of an Ethereum client at the Hackathons organized by ConsenSys. At these Hackathons, the Ethereum team was isolated from major financial institutions and trading platforms, and their efforts were put to the test to see if they could build a functioning prototype in a short period of time and thereby lay the foundation of a decentralized application platform for the Internet of Value.

The launch of Ethereum’s open testnet, dubbed Olympic, occurred in July 2015. Later, in May 2016, Frontier, version 1.0 of the blockchain, was released. The first Ethereum block was finally mined with that version on May 30, 2016, ushering in the now popular Blockchain platform.

Today, Ethereum offers developers two key ways to build decentralized applications, the first being Ethereum Classic, a rendering of the July 29, 2017 hackathon genesis webpage, and the second, called Solidity, a programming language that’s compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. These two clients are both still being actively developed and regularly receive bug fixes and new feature additions, and to this day, each version of Ethereum Classic and Solidity has its own distinct features that differentiate it from its predecessor version.

How does Ethereum work?

Ethereum has two main components. The first is the ethereum client, which talks with the Ethereum blockchain and keeps your accounts safe. The second is the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which executes programs on the blockchain. 

Applications developed on the ethereum blockchain run on the EVM. The EVM has its own language called Solidity that programs smart contracts. These are computer programs that run exactly as specified. 

Solidity is a contract-oriented, high-level language whose syntax is similar to that of JavaScript. It’s used to write smart contracts on Ethereum. You can use Solidity to deploy your own applications on Ethereum. The best part is that you don’t even need a server, because Dapps run on the blockchain itself.

In some cases, developers will modify Solidity to create their own private and public algorithms for smart contracts. Once an application has been downloaded to a computer, you’re all set to use it.

Most Ethereum applications are based on an enhanced version of solidity known as Serpent. Solidity and serpent are easy to develop for most developers. A developer can use Serpent to create private and public algorithms for smart contracts.

What makes Ethereum unique?

Ethereum is a decentralization and smart contract platform. A blockchain is a type of database that records, confirms, and executes actions within the network. Transactions and apps are added to the chain, but everyone in the network sees the state of the ledger and can see the entire history of transactions, because it’s all recorded in a blockchain. 

In a traditional network, users have to trust the website or company that is maintaining the platform or application to make sure the platform is secure and that there are no backdoors. But on Ethereum, no one in the network has to trust anyone else. Ethereum uses “smart contracts” that automate functions such as payment, voting, or contracts that handle personal data.

Ethereum can be used to codify, decentralize, secure and trade just about anything: voting, domain names, financial exchanges, crowdfunding, company governance, contracts and agreements of most kind, intellectual property, and even smart property thanks to hardware integration.

Mining Ethereum

Ethereum mining is a vital part of the Ethereum ecosystem. The “proof of work” algorithm allows decentralized networks to agree and verify transactions without relying on trust or a third party.

People who want to mine cryptocurrency use specialized software that allows them to solve computationally intensive problems and verify transactions. This makes it possible for new transactions to be confirmed by the network and payments to be processed. 

Miners work in groups of people. They are rewarded for each transaction they help create, and are paid in the cryptocurrency of their choice. People can set up their own mining pool and gain a competitive advantage against others. 

This type of mining rewards people with a block reward (about 20 ethers) for every few blocks they process. The mining system is free of a block reward, and instead miners are payed directly by users sending transactions. This eliminates the possibility of centralized mining pools and reduces the proportion of Ether going to the developers.

So, Ethereum mining is useful for more than just the creation of new ETH tokens. Many people will find it worthwhile to generate new Ether to invest it into their business; to pay for computing power, server capacity, or simply because they want to support the network and what it stands for.

Conclusion

While it still has a ways to go before it can match Bitcoin’s network effect, Ethereum has improved on many mistakes that Bitcoin made with its initial launch — creating an altcoin that is more flexible and less prone to forking than its counterpart.

Ethereum’s ambitions are more than realistic. Despite its current price stagnation, the potential of the cryptocurrency is tremendous. The platform has enormous potential to change the way we live and work. Forever.

Related articles

© Cryptopress. All rights reserved.