Who created Ethereum?

In 2013 the programmer Vitalik Buterin published his project Ethereum in order to launch decentralized applications.

In 2014 he put on sale the first Ethers to finance the development of the project.

It sells $ 60 million for a value of more than $ 18 million at the time.

The blockchain Ethereum is launched on July 30, 2015.

What is Ethereum?

The ethereum is a global computer network that creates a new type of application.

Let's take an example :

You want to send a message to your friend through the WhatsApp application.

You are sending your message.

The message will go through WhatsApp's own server.

Your message is saved in this company's server forever.
Your friend receives your message.
This is called a centralized computer network.
An "App": decentralized application.

The Ethereum network is decentralized.

This means that when you send your message to your friend, the message is sent over a global network and independent of computers.

Each of these computers will operate part of the work through a program called "mist".

For the work accomplished (its electricity, its computing power ...), each participant will receive a reward: an ether.

This ether will be the fuel, the gas, which will allow to use the Apps.

Thus an interaction is created:

Participants in the computer network want to monetize their work and generate their Ethers against Euros.

The developers of dApps need this Ether to develop their application on this network, and therefore exchange their Euros against Ethers.

Smart contracts.

Technically this network of computers works with the same technology developed for the bitcoin, ie the blockchain.

To use this blockchain, we will set up programmable computer codes called "smart contracts".

These Smart contracts are in fact a series of instructions sent and executed on the blockchain.

Ethereum and bitcoin

The ethereum is therefore by its basic technology the little brother of the bitcoin, but instead of being only a virtual currency, it offers the possibility to revolutionize the world of applications.

The advantages are the same as those of the bitcoin:

-The data recorded on the etchings blockchain is forever.

-This data can not be transformed or hacked.

-The network is secure.

-The operation of the blockchain is extremely reliable thanks to the very large number of participating computers, it never stops.

-What happens on the network is visible to all: the contracts are passed publicly and therefore controllable by all and at any time.

Is the Ether a coin?

The Ether is therefore a value that can be exchanged as a currency, and on which it is possible to speculate.

But it is also exchangeable against the "gas" necessary for the execution of the contracts, exchange which is done automatically because when executing a contract it costs a fraction of Ether, which is the price of the gas necessary for its execution.

How to Own Ethers?

To possess Ethers it is therefore necessary either:

-Participate to the Ethereum network.

-Buy to the participants who make the contracts work.

-Buy on market platforms.

The Ethereum network is therefore a network based on a revolutionary technology that will have repercussions in many fields.

It represents today a very large monetary mass which is located just after its "ancestor" the bitcoin.