What is Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is a decentralized operating system. The platform introduced the concept of "decentralized applications" in practice. Its founder, Vitalik Buterin, has been involved in the development of blockchain and Bitcoin from the very beginning.

Today, several cryptocurrencies are issued in ICOs with Ethereum. These tokens are called ERC-20 and are the basis for the execution of scripts in the Ethereum Virtual Machine. By developing "smart contracts", Ethereum enabled the signing of tokens that have a specific function in addition to their function as a medium of exchange and expanded the possibilities of blockchain "transactions".

The main cryptocurrency is Ether, which is usually used for payments in smart contracts or dApps. In addition, Ethereum is also powered by GAS, a cryptocurrency associated with operations that require some kind of computation from its nodes. The GAS price is proportional to the type of computational power required to perform a task. Therefore, a fee is included in GAS to pay the nodes that execute or authenticate a transaction.

Originally, Ethereum used Proof-of-Work to achieve consensus. With the Casper protocol, however, the Ethereum consensus was gradually switched from PoW to its own proof-of-stake protocol.