What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is actually very similar to Bitcoin. Ethereum is a public peer-to-peer network or blockchain with its own digital currency called Ether. Ethereum was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2014 and Ethereum's goal is to become a platform on which smart contracts can be created and run.
Simply put, Ethereum's goal is to become the world's computer.
Bitcoin is intended for keeping a list of balances and transactions on its blockchain, while the Ethereum blockchain is designed to store various types of data. This data can be accessed and used by computer programs running on the Ethereum blockchain. These programs are called decentralized applications, or dapps.
Developers around the world can build and run decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain. Its aim is to improve the financial industry, personal information storage, governance with many other uses by using the transparent nature of blockchain.
Where did Ethereum come from?
Ethereum was first mentioned in 2013 in a whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin, the developer who was working on Bitcoin at the time.
Buterin believes that Bitcoin should be made more "adaptable". He believes that Bitcoin should be used further than just a store of wealth and the smart contract feature can be used to automatically determine when a payment is made, for example. This project is not meant for Bitcoin, which is why Buterin created Ethereum in 2014 for this purpose.
Ethereum is pioneering what is known as an initial coin offering (ICO), selling to early investors about 60 million Ether tokens while the project was still under development. It is a great journey to develop and continue to promote the Ethereum ecosystem while paying a fee for legality and development.
Since then, Ethereum has grown rapidly. Several other projects have been launched, and development of the Ethereum platform has begun, with varying degrees of success.