About Ether, what do you want to know? :)

It's a blockchain, like bitcoin and the rest, but what makes it special is its ability to house and execute "smart contracts", or bits of code that make stuff happen.

So through these smart contracts, people are able to create Decentralized apps or Dapps, and subchains like ERC20 tokens, which is basically a different crypto coin that is rooted in the Ethereum blockchain. People have created literally hundreds of these tokens, which are usually sold in ICOs.

Other things smart contracts can do:

• prove identity
• transfer property or items of value
• basically, the stuff regular contracts do, mixed with things computers do

Disclaimer: I may not be 100% technically correct on all that, but it's the general gist. I welcome corrections.