What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency-transfer system that allows you to send cryptocurrency to anyone for a nominal charge. It also powers open-source programs that no one can take down. It's the first programmable blockchain in the world. Ethereum is a fork of Bitcoin, with a few key modifications. Both allow you to utilize digital money without the need for a payment provider or a bank. However, because Ethereum is programmable, you may use it to create a variety of digital assets, including Bitcoin. This means Ethereum can be used for more than just payments. It's a financial services, gaming, and software store that won't steal your data or censor you.

ETH or Ether is an Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, and it is the second biggest in the world, right after Bitcoin. People, who are mining ETH are allowing Ethereum to be secure and free of centralized control, or in other words we can say that ETH powers Ethereum.

Ethereum, like other cryptocurrencies, is built on the blockchain platform. Imagine a lengthy chain of blocks connected, with every member of the blockchain network knowing all there is to know about each block. Distributed consensus regarding the status of the blockchain may be generated and maintained if every member of the network has the same knowledge of the blockchain, which works as an electronic ledger.

Blockchain technology establishes a distributed consensus on the Ethereum network's current state. To process Ethereum transactions and manufacture new ether currencies, or to execute smart contracts for Ethereum dApps, new blocks are added to the very lengthy Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum is also protected by cryptography, meaning that your wallet and transactions are secured. Peer-to-peer payments allows you to send ETH without any intermediary service like a bank. As mentioned above, there is no centralized control and the coin is global and open to anyone with internet access and a wallet which accepts ETH. Ethereum is divisible to up to 18 decimals, which means that one does not need to buy a whole ETH but can buy only a fraction of it.

The decentralized nature of blockchain technology provides security to the Ethereum network. The Ethereum blockchain network is maintained by a massive network of computers all over the world, and any changes to the blockchain require distributed consensus (majority agreement). To successfully manipulate the Ethereum blockchain, an individual or group of network members would need to achieve majority control of the Ethereum platform's computational power—a job that would be enormous, if not impossible.

ETH and other cryptocurrencies can only support a limited number of apps on the Ethereum platform. On the Ethereum platform, users may build, publish, monetize, and utilize a wide range of apps, and they can pay with ETH or another cryptocurrency.