Ethereum, What is it? How can it be used

Hey,
I am relatively new to the crypto/blockchain world, so this rundown will be a more simple introduction to the technology a rundown of the currency/business as I understand it, and my thoughts on its potential. I was reading a lot about it and saw its fluctuations and wanted to get a better understanding of it before investing, so I’ll share what I figured out.

Ethereum was designed with a much broader applicability in mind than a straight forward peer to peer currency exchange. It has a blockchain technology that allows for smart contracts to be integrated into the blockchain that will execute given certain parameters, so this means a contract could be as simple as, once two parties agree execute dispatch deduct funds and finalize the sales order complete with funds transferred immediately through the blockchain. Or for example a wholesale/retail chain could execute resupply sales of stock triggered automatically once the stock levels fall below a par level. This simple process alone could revolutionise retail market, reducing logistical requirements immensely. If this protocol implemented correctly even on a supplier/wholesale level it could seriously revolutionize the way we think of supply chains from top to bottom, if suppliers can reduce stock levels due to instantaneous replenishment of stock they can reduce overheads significantly.
But this is only the simplest of smart contracts possible, with multiple parties in contracts and multiple ways of triggering the contracts such as (commodity price hits $.* sell) its potential to revolutionize the way business is done is extraordinary. But this is not to say it isn’t without limitations. Its scaling has problems, its speed could become a issue as it grows.
Hope this was helpful.
Twigg