Ethereum is an open-source blockchain-based platform that essentially enables hundreds of decentralized cryptocurrencies and projects to be built and deployed exist without having to build their own blockchains.
With the second largest market cap in the cryptocurrency world, Ethereum has drawn a lot of attention from investors and crypto enthusiasts alike.
Ethereum not only presents a significant change to the status quo, it also allows for the quick development and deployment of new applications presenting niche solutions for various industries.
While Ethereum’s utility is obvious to programmers and the tech world at large, many people who are less tech-savvy have trouble understanding it. We’ve designed this guide to appeal to both crowds and expose anyone from complete crypto beginners and intermediates to this potentially world-changing cryptocurrency.
Ethereum vs. Bitcoin
If you’re interested in Ethereum, chances are you have some sort of foundational knowledge of Bitcoin.
All cryptocurrencies inevitably get compared to Bitcoin, and it frankly makes understanding them much easier.
Bitcoin launched in 2009 as the world’s first cryptocurrency, with the single goal of creating a decentralized universal currency. This currency would not require any intermediary financial institutions, but would still ensure safe and valid transactions. This was made possible by a revolutionary technology called the “blockchain.”
The blockchain is a digital ledger, continuously recording and verifying records. It’s used to track and verify Bitcoin transactions. Since the global network of communicating nodes maintains the blockchain, it’s pretty much incorruptible. As new blocks are added to the network, they are constantly validated.
Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum is a distributed public blockchain network. While both Ethereum and Bitcoin are cryptocurrencies that can be traded among users, there are many substantial differences between the two.
Bitcoin, for example, utilizes blockchain to track ownership of the digital currency, making it an extremely effective peer to peer electronic cash system. Ethereum, on the other hand, focuses on running the programming code of an application. Application developers largely use it to pay for services and transaction fees on the Ethereum network.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are “decentralized,” meaning they have no central control or issuing authority. Respective miners run each network by validating transactions to earn either bitcoin (for Bitcoin) or ether (for Ethereum).
What is Ethereum?
Simply put, Ethereum is a blockchain-based decentralized platform on which decentralized applications (Dapps) can be built.
Remember, blockchain isa database with no central server that keeps track of every transaction and exchange. The vast majority of cryptocurrencies and decentralized projects run on some application of blockchain.
We’ll jump into decentralized apps—referred to as dapps–in greater detail later, but just know they are applications that serve a specific purpose to a user. Fasten your seatbelts, some of these dapps are amazing.
Ethereum’s appeal is that it’s built in a way that enables developers to create smart contracts. Smart contracts are scripts that automatically execute tasks when certain conditions are met. For example, a smart contract could technically say, “pay Jane $10 if she submits a 1000 word article on goats by September 15, 2018,” and it would pay Jane once the conditions are met.
These smart contracts are executed by the Turing-complete Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), run by an international public network of nodes.
The cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network is called ether. Ether serves two different functions:
- Compensate the mining full nodes that power its network. This keeps things running smoothly at an administrative level.
- Pay people under smart contract conditions. This is what motivates users to work on the Ethereum platform.
If you’re still a little confused, don’t worry. The underlying technology is complicated even at a surface level.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of Ethereum than 99.999% of people out there… and that’s a pretty good start!
We’ll go over things such as how Ethereum functions, Ethereum’s history, and some of the exciting dapps running on the Ethereum platform.
Welcome to a Wild Ride: Ethereum
In 2011, a 17-year-old Russian-Canadian boy named Vitalik Buterin learned about Bitcoin from his father. Buterin became a co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine and a leading writer for the publication. Buterin currently serves on the Editorial Board of Ledger. As a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Ledger publishes original research articles on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The publication shows interest in any topics relating blockchain to mathematics, computer science, engineering, law, and economics.
In 2013, after visiting developers across the world who shared an enthusiasm for programming, Buterin published a white-paper proposing Ethereum.
In 2014, Buterin dropped out of the University of Waterloo after receiving the Thiel Fellowship of $100,000 to work on Ethereum full-time.
In 2015, the Ethereum system went live.
In 2017, Ethereum hit a cap rate of $36 billion dollars.
Whether you’re looking at this from an investment standpoint, tech perspective, or witness to history; Ethereum is extremely exciting.
Buterin’s goal was to bring the same decentralization from Bitcoin to more than just currency. This could be accomplished by building a fully-fledged Turing-complete programming language into the Ethereum blockchain.
The Ethereum white paper goes into detail for some of the potential use cases, all of which could be built through decentralized apps on the Ethereum network. The list goes on and on:
- Token Systems
- Financial Derivatives
- Identity and Reputation Systems
- File Storage
- Banking
- Centralized Autonomous Organizations
- Insurance
- Data Feeds
- Cloud Computing
- Prediction Markets
By building these apps on the Ethereum network, these dapps can utilize Ethereum’s blockchain instead of having to create their own.
Ethereum’s Founding Team
The core Ethereum founding team in 2014 consisted of Vitalik Buterin, Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Iorio, and Charles Hoskinson, additionally attracting the attention of Joseph Lubin to join the team. Lubin moved on to found the now near 1,000-employee Brooklyn-based “venture production studio” ConsenSys.
Rumored to be one of the top buyers in the Ethereum crowdsale, Lubin, who had been funding ConsenSys with his stash of Bitcoins, says he began selling some of his Ethers last year to fund the firm’s development
The Ethereum Virtual Machine
Early blockchain applications like Bitcoin only allowed users a set of predefined operations. For example, Bitcoin was created exclusively to operate as a cryptocurrency.
Unlike these early blockchain projects, Ethereum allows users to create their own operations. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) makes this possible. As Ethereum’s runtime environment, the EVM executes smart contracts. Since every Ethereum node runs the EVM, applications built on it reap the benefits of being decentralized without having to build their own blockchain.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are strings of computer code capable of automatically executing when certain predetermined conditions are met.
Instead of requiring a single central authority to say “yay” or “nay,” these contracts are self-operated. This not only makes the entire process more effective, it also makes it more fair and objective.
For example, a simple smart contract use case would be:
- Jim wants to bet Sarah 100 Ether (ETH) that the price of ETH will be above $1000 on August 30th, 2018.
- They agree on a data feed to be used to determine the ETH price.
- They each escrow 100 ETH to a smart contract, with the winner taking the full 200 ETH.
- On August 30th, 2018 the data feed is queried and the contract immediately executes sending money to the winner.
Using the smart contract, there’s no need for Jim and Sarah to trust each other. They just have to trust the data feed.
Keep in mind that this is only a very simple example. Many smart contracts are extremely complex and can work wonders.
The takeaway: Smart contracts can automate a variety of tasks, without requiring intermediaries. All a smart contract needs is the arbitrary rules written into it.
Ethereum’s Challenges and Initiatives
Handling financial transactions alone presents hugely complex problems in terms of reliability and security. And since the Ethereum network comprises a general purpose blockchain that handles assets other than money, more complex challenges arise beyond mere financial transactions. Moving into the future, Ethereum confronts issues of scalability, energy consumption, security, privacy, and decentralization.
Beyond Money
As a general purpose blockchain, Ethereum needs a mechanism to represent assets other than money. The ERC-721 standard has been created to transact unique items of value. The ERC acronym stands for Ethereum Request for Comment and provides a formal process for the Ethereum Foundation to improve its product. The ERC-721 standard originally drove the development of the highly successful CryptoKitties collectibles, but it allows for the representation of any digital asset.
Future Updates to Ethereum: The Long Road of the Future
Software never stops changing until people stop using it. The Ethereum Foundation follows a roadmap of future modifications and enhancements to the system. No system ever runs fast enough, so scaling continues to develop. Privacy remains paramount, and research into zero-knowledge proofs continues. Decentralized systems demand constant attention to security. Many aspects of the future remain unknown. Some new and popular application not yet on the market may well demand new capabilities from the system. As the world changes, Ethereum continues to evolve.
The future for Ethereum is bright, but it is not without its potential uncertainty.
A notable event on the horizon is the Metropolis hard fork that is set to occur in late September. This hard fork indicates some major upgrades for the platform including:
- Increased anonymity with new zero-knowledge proofs, or “zk-SNARKs.” This means users will be able to conduct transactions at much more secure levels of anonymity than ever before.
- Smart contracts and programming will be much easier to work with. Gas is also going to be adjusted for bill setting.
- Masking will increase security on the network. Users will be able to determine the address for which they have a private key, and this will protect them from quantum computer hacking.
- A “difficulty bomb” will be included in the upgraded, meaning mining will become much more difficult. This is a significant step as Ethereum transitions from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-sake (PoS).
We won’t know how this hard fork will affect the price of Ethereum as markets could adjust in a variety of ways. If the upgrades attract more users, the price could rise. However, if mining becomes more difficult and slows, the price could fall.
The next upgrade after Metropolis is referred to as Serenity, which should increase stability and encourage more investment.
Final Thoughts
While there is a lot of speculative interest around Ethereum, it’s important to note that the Ethereum and dapp communities are very much focused on building a tangible future.
Ethereum is a phenomenal application of the blockchain and has made it possible for hundreds of projects to exist.
“Blockchain solves the problem of manipulation. When I speak about it in the West, people say they trust Google, Facebook, or their banks. But the rest of the world doesn’t trust organizations and corporations that much — I mean Africa, India, Eastern Europe, or Russia. It’s not about the places where people are really rich. Blockchain’s opportunities are the highest in the countries that haven’t reached that level yet.”
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Founder
The primary goal of Ethereum’s founders isn’t to create a cryptocurrency that makes speculators a ton of money; it’s to change the world. The Ethereum community attracts ideological supporters in the same way Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies do, but it’s use cases give it life far beyond that of other coins.
Editor’s Note: This article is originally published at Coincentral.com
