Over the past year, Ethereum has become a popular alternative to Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Unlike Bitcoin and rival currency Litecoin, however, many companies and startups have adopted Ethereum as a way of transacting.

I like to see Ethereum as the jewel of currencies in the cryptocurrency wars-it has both an intrinsic value and an industrial value. Compare this to Bitcoin, which acts like gold-not much economic value, but people buy it and sell it to the owner on the basis of its intrinsic value.

With Ethereum's success, most people are curious about what it is, how it is different from bitcoin, and how to invest in it. There are also risks to invest, and the ability to undo it and to build up your own richness.

But before going into the Ethereum World, lets us first understand what Ethereum is all about.

WHAT IS ETHEREUM?

Ethereum is basically a distributed platform that allows developers and programmers to run any application's code.

I thought its a currency? Yes it is! It has its monetary value like Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is using a technology specifically called blockchain to conduct monetary transactions. Ethereum uses blockchain technology to enable applications to be created that can be run in the cloud, can be protected from manipulation, and much more. A bi-product of this, however, is that Ethereum uses a token called Ether to transact, which is similar to Bitcoin. This is Ethereum's portion of monetary value.

Ethereum has attracted all kinds of attention because of its unique abilities– from finance to real estate, investors, software developers, hardware manufacturers, and more.

HOW TO INVEST IN ETHEREUM?

You need a digital wallet if you are interested in investing in Ethereum, and Ether in particular. Ethereum is not trading on any major stock platform. You can't go and buy Ethereum from your online discount broker. You've got to turn it into your wallet.

It is important to remember that Ether (ETH) is a currency and that investors should treat it as such. You're not buying Ether shares like stocks or ETFs. Instead, for Ether tokens, you are exchanging your dollars. There are no distributions, there are no payouts. Your only hope is that other people on the Internet will pay you more than you paid them for your tokens in the future.

CONCLUSION

It's risky to invest in Ethereum, but it might be lucrative. Unlike Bitcoin or Litecoin, companies are currently using Ethereum as a building block-something more diamond-like than gold. This is a future win as an investor.