What
Ethereum is a next-generation distributed cryptographic ledger that is designed to allow users to encode advanced transaction types, smart contracts and decentralized applications into the blockchain. Ethereum will support custom currencies or "colored coins", financial derivatives, and much more, but unlike many previous networks that attempted to accomplish the same thing Ethereum does not attempt to constrain users into using specific "features"; instead, the ledger includes a built-in Turing-complete programming language that can be used to construct any kind of contract that can be mathematically defined.
To find out more about how Ethereum works, visit the technical whitepaper at http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html or the FAQ at https://wiki.ethereum.org/index.php/FAQ
The most innovative blockchain-based crytpocurrency since Bitcoin itself, and the only one that I would bother acquiring units of.
Fellow Traveler (Chris Odom) Open Transactions
I really don't like altcoins, and think all of them so far, including Litecoin, are useless but I agree with FT, this is the only one, besides Bitcoin, I would acquire and support.
Rassah Bitcoin 100
Ethereum is without doubt the most ambitious Metacoin layer to date, and Vitalik Buterin is a real pillar of the Bitcoin community. I can't wait to see what comes out of this project.
Adam B. Levine Let's Talk Bitcoin
Why
When the grand experiment that is bitcoin began, the anonymous wizard desired to test two parameters- a trustless, decentralized database enjoying security enforced by the austere relentlessness of cryptography and a robust transaction system capable of sending value across the world without intermediaries. Yet the past five years years have painfully demonstrated a third missing feature: a sufficiently powerful Turing-complete scripting language.
Up until this point, most innovation in advanced applications such as domain and identity registration, user-issued currencies, smart property, smart contracts, and decentralized exchange has been highly fragmented, and implementing any of these technologies has required creating an entire meta-protocol layer or even a specialized blockchain. Theoretically, however, each and every one of these innovations and more can potentially be made hundreds of times easier to implement, and easier to scale, if only there was a stronger foundational layer with a powerful scripting language for all of these protocols to build upon. And this need is what we seek to satisfy.
philosophy
- Simplicity - the Ethereum protocol should be as simple as possible, even at the cost of some data storage inefficiency or time inefficiency. An average programmer should ideally be able to follow and implement the entire specification, so as to eventually help minimize the influence that any specific individual or elite group can have on the protocol and furthering the vision of Ethereum as a protocol that is open to all. Optimizations which add complexity should not be included unless they provide very substantial benefit.
- Universality - it is a fundamental part of Ethereum's design philosophy that Ethereum does not have "features". Instead, Ethereum provides an internal Turing-complete scripting language which you can use to construct any smart contract or transaction type that can be mathematically defined. Want to invent your own financial derivative? With Ethereum, you can. Want to make your own currency? Set it up as an Ethereum contract. Want to set up a full-scale Daemon or Skynet? You may need to have a few thousand interlocking contracts, and be sure to feed them generously, to do that, but nothing is stopping you.
- Modularity - different parts of the Ethereum protocol should be designed to be as modular and separable as possible. Over the course of development, it should be easy to make a small protocol modification in one place and have the application stack continue to function without any further modification. Innovations such as Dagger, Patricia trees and RLP should be implemented as separate libraries and made to be feature-complete even if Ethereum does not require certain features so as to make them usable in other protocols as well. Ethereum development should be maximally done so as to benefit the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, not just itself.
- Non-Discrimination - the protocol should not attempt to actively restrict or prevent specific categories of usage, and all regulatory mechanisms in the protocol should be designed to directly regulate the harm, not attempt to oppose specific undesirable applications. You can even run an infinite loop script on top of Ethereum for as long as you are willing to keep paying the per-computational-step transaction fee for it.
- Agility - details of the Ethereum protocol are not set in stone. Although we will be extremely judicious about making modifications to high-level constructs such as the C-like language and the address system, computational tests later on in the development process may lead us to discover that certain modifications to the algorithm or scripting language will substantially improve scalability or security. If any such opportunities are found, we will make use of them.
What can you make out of ether?
Create a Currency
Make your own cryptocurrency on top of the Ethereum blockchain
Savings Wallet
Use multiple keys and withdrawal limits to protect your funds
Financial Derivatives
Speculate on financial assets at high leverage, or use hedging to protect yourself from volatility
Decentralized Organizations
Create decentralized companies or organizations that operate entirely on the blockchain
Name Registration
Register your name and your website
Data storage
Securely pay for nodes to archive your data, or earn money by renting out your hard drive
How
Contracts are the main building block of Ethereum. A contract is like a computer program that lives inside the Ethereum network and has its own ether balance, memory and code. Every time you send a transaction to a contract, the contract executes its code, which can store data, send transactions and even interact with other contracts. You can use contracts to issue currencies, construct your own escrow contracts or financial derivatives, and even create on-blockchain data stores. Thanks to Turing-completeness, Ethereum contracts let you create self-enforcing smart contracts with any conditions that can be mathematically defined. You can find out more in the whitepaper: http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html
Who
Vitalik Buterin
Founder
Anthony Di lorio
Founder
Charles Hoskinson
Founder
Mihai Alisie
Founder
Join
Bitcoin Decentral. 64 Spadina Ave. Toronto, On, Canada
Email : info@ethereum.org - Web : www.ethereum.org
Blog : blog.ethereum.org - Forum : forum.ethereum.org