Ethereum
Ethereum (ETH, Ether) is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It provides a decentralized Turing-complete virtual machine (Ethereum VM), the Etherium Virtual Machine (VM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. Ethereum also provides a cryptocurrency token called “ether”, which can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant nodes for computations performed. “Gas”, an internal transaction pricing mechanism, is used to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network.
As an open source platform, Ethereum greatly simplifies the implementation of blockchain technology, which explains the interest of not only new startups, but also major SOFTWARE developers, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Acronis. Also, conventional companies such as VTB banks, Sberbank, Lufthansa and S7 airlines, as well as international charitable organizations showed interest in the platform.
Ethereum was proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a cryptocurrency researcher and programmer. Development was funded by an online crowdsale between July and August 2014. The system went live on 30 July 2015, with 11.9 million eth coins “premined” for the crowdsale. This accounts for approximately 13 percent of the total circulating supply.
In 2016, as a result of the collapse of The DAO project, Ethereum was forked into two separate blockchains — the new forked version became Ethereum (ETH), and the original continued as Ethereum Classic (ETC).
