After a long time spent on search and research as a layman, I figured out that Ethereum is both a cryptocurrency and a functional decentralized environment that has truly revolutionized the entire crypto-world.
The inventors of Ether and also Vitalik Buterin stand out apart from others in launching this platform pursued standard goals for cryptocurrency miners - to improve the basics of bitcoin. However, Ether can not be classified as another Bitcoin. These are somewhat similar but entirely different from each other.
Some people talk about this, but the 2016–2017 cryptocurrency boom was one of the reasons for the launch and popularization of Ethereum. The new environment has maximized the potential of blockchain in the Fintech industry and has given impetus to introducing new startups and projects, which in turn has attracted huge investment.
ETH now by far in the position of the world’s second most popular cryptocurrency and most revolutionary too. I have spent a lot of time studying the characteristics of Ethereum and trying to describe it in a simple language for the benefit of the common reader without delving into the technical terms.
Here is what in simple terms - Ethereum cryptocurrency
If we follow the dogma terminology, the Ethereum platform is designed to operate decentralized blockchain-based applications using smart contracts.
The internal posture of the stage is ether or ether. Short designation - ETH. Wings are not only used as a unit of account. They also guarantee the execution of smart contracts, which acted as a “fuel” for the network.
Who started Ethereum?
As we all know that Ethereum is the creation of a Canadian developer Butlerin basically from Russia. He became interested in cryptocurrencies back in 2011, that published a magazine related to Bitcoin for a while. At the same time, he studies programming languages and closely followed the process, and also had in his mind about creating an advanced platform that works based on blockchain.
Butlerin considers that the idea of making Ethereum did not come to him in a jiffy, but he thought about it for a long time. At first, he tried to promote it in the project for which he was working. But he knew it will take a year at least to implement. Then he worked on it, sometimes felt disappointed but determined to succeed, he continued. Meanwhile, he kept thinking during his stay in San Francisco and consulting with his friends, and finally reached a plan.
It was in 2013-2014, that fundraising for the development of the ETH platform began through crowdfunding. The Ethereum initial coin raising brought 31,191 BTC, and the project managed to attract banks and financial institutions as well. Finally, the platform was launched in July 2015. However, it was not fully functional until March 2016 with the release of the Homestead protocol.
In simple terms, what is Ethereum cryptocurrency and what was Ethereum started for
Ethereum has provided completely new opportunities to bring decentralized projects and startups based on blockchain and smart contracts. One of these startups is The DAO. It is a platform to find projects for investment, built on smart contracts. DAO has become one of the most successful in ICO history.
During crowdfunding, they managed $150 million in investments. However, because of an error in the source code, part of the money (60 million) vanished or went to hackers.
To recover the stolen funds, it was proposed to return the network through hard forks, as it relates to blockchain technology, a radical change to a network’s protocol. That could make it possible to back up the blockchain to its initial state before they stole it from the DAO. It was not possible to get full consent in the network, so, in parallel with Ethereum, the Ethereum Classic appeared - the “Before Rollback” version. Despite the fact that the hard fork made it possible to return the stolen investments. It was initially criticized, as it violated one of the main tenets of the blockchain - the immutability of operations.
Ethereum has seriously affected the entire crypto-world. it has shown the versatility as well the flexibility of the blockchain. The authors of the platform have implemented an environment with convenient tools in which a person can create a startup or application of a decentralized nature without serious technical training. For example, the source code of the Namonin cryptocurrency is only 5 lines long. Therefore, Ethereum can be called a customized framework in which the development is based on smart contracts.
How does Ethereum work
As I found it the harder way that the concept of a smart contract is one of the foundations of Ethereum. It is a computer algorithm that ensures the execution of contracts within the blockchain. Smart contracts are created in such a way that a certain action can be executed only when certain conditions reached or obtained.
