In 300 or less. Ethereum

Ethereum is another blockchain which builds upon the features of Bitcoin. It’s primary innovation is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which uses blockchain technology to create a distributed computer.

This computer enables peer-to-peer transactions; the creation of ‘smart contracts’; and the creation of ownership rights for digital assets other than Ether — Ethereum’s native token.

Smart Contracts are bits of code which the distributed computer can execute. Once a smart contract is written and deployed on the blockchain, it cannot be altered — hence they are very useful for enforcing ‘contract’ type agreements or creating applications which once launched, cannot be stopped or altered.

A good example of a smart contract might be a bet.

If John bets Jane 1 ETH that Bitcoin’s price in 10 weeks will be higher than it is today a smart contract could take 1 ETH from each of them. In 10 weeks, the smart contract would see who was right and pay them back their 1 ETH plus their winnings.

Normally to place this bet you would need to give your money over to a third-party betting agency which takes a fee. If instead you arranged the bet peer-to-peer, there would be no way to guarantee that the loser pays what they owe. Smart contracts eliminate both issues.

The EVM is run by a distributed community of ‘miners’ which use the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism to determine the transactions and code the distributed computer should execute. Because there is not one single Ethereum computer or server — the EVM’s smart contracts cannot be stopped by anyone unless they manage to shut down every single member of the network.

Ethereum’s distributed computer executes smart contracts and keeps track of the digital assets every wallet owns, enabling people to transfer Ether, unique digital assets called NFTs and other fungible tokens.

Final Count: 300