Everything To Know About Ethereum?

What is Ethereum?

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Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today.

Ethereum was invented in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin. In 2014, development was crowdfunded, and the network went live on 30 July 2015. The platform allows anyone to deploy permanent and immutable decentralized applications onto it, with which users can interact. Decentralized finance (DeFi) applications provide a broad array of financial services without the need for typical financial intermediaries like brokerages, exchanges, or banks, such as allowing cryptocurrency users to borrow against their holdings or lend them out for interest. Ethereum also allows for the creation and exchange of NFTs, which are non-interchangeable tokens connected to digital works of art or other real-world items and sold as unique digital property. Additionally, many other cryptocurrencies operate as ERC-20 tokens on top of the Ethereum blockchain and have utilized the platform for initial coin offerings.

Ethereum has started implementing a series of upgrades called Ethereum 2.0, which includes a transition to proof of stake and aims to increase transaction throughput using sharding.

What does Ethereum do?

Currency: With a cryptocurrency wallet, you can send and receive ether or pay for goods and services, if the digital currency is accepted as payment.

Smart contracts: Smart contracts are a kind of permission-less app that automatically executes when the contract’s conditions have been met.

Digital apps, or dapps: Ethereum powers digital apps that allow users to play games, invest, send money, track an investment portfolio, follow social media and more.

Non-fungible tokens: These tokens can be powered by Ethereum and can allow artists or others to sell art or other items directly to sellers using smart contracts.

Decentralized finance: By using Ethereum, some people may be able to avoid centralized (government) control over the movement of money or other assets.