Ethereum is a platform that allows its people to easily write decentralized applications using blockchain technology. If you want to know what is Ethereum and how it works and what are its applications, this article will be helpful to you.

By the time you come across with this article maybe you are now familiar with crypto currencies because there are now hundreds of them readily available in the internet. Also, maybe you are now well aware of the crypto currency named bitcoin, bitcoin is the world's leading crypto currency followed by "ether" (Ethereum).

If you want to know more about Bitcoin visit my Bitcoin article in this link: http://informationgateway.expertscolumn.com/article/what-is-bitcoin-how-to-get-it-how-to-store-and-use-it-how-it-works

Bitcoin (capital B) is the term for the technology and bitcoin (lower case b) is the unit of account or the cryptocurrency. Also, Ethereum is the technology and “ether” is the unit of account or the crypto currency.

They are ranked 1 (Bitcoin) and ranked 2 (Ethereum) respectively in the website cryptocurrency market capitalization. The website uses “Bitcoin” and “Ethereum” with a capital B and E for whatever reason. Ethereum features smart contract functionality which is not available in the Bitcoin blockchain.

Origin of Ethereum

Ethereum was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2013. Buterin is a former programmer in Bitcoin.

What is Smart Contract

Smart contract is a program (codes) created with Ethereum.

They self-execute or self-terminate when terms agreed upon by involved parties are reached or not.

How to get Ethereum (technology) and ether (cryptocurrency)

Basically, you need to have a wallet first before you can obtain ether. You can get the official Ethereum wallet in its website Ethereum.org. But there are also numerous wallets out there in the internet. One of the good example of Ethereum wallet is the one being offered by Coinbase. Coinbase wallet is also able to store bitcoin making it a flexible wallet if you want to trade or use ether and bitcoin at the same time.

In the Ethereum wallet you can store and secure ether and other crypto-assets built on Ethereum, you can write, deploy and use smart contracts that are built on Ethereum. Coinbase wallet only offer storage and transfer of ether from wallet address to another.

How to obtain, send and receive ether.

If you already have an Ethereum wallet then you can start transacting with ether. You can also use ether as a medium of currency. You can buy products and pay for services using ether by transferring from one Ethereum wallet address to another. You can ask to be paid in ether in you are a professional. If you are a businessman you can ask customers to pay you with ether.

Basically, sending and receiving ether is just like sending and receiving bitcoin using their wallet address. The transaction records of ether are also written in a ledger called blockchain in the form of “block”.

How Smart Contract Works

 

Using Ethereum you can create contract that will self-execute when terms are reached, and also self-terminate if not. Payment is on-hold until terms are reached, and will be returned to the customers if the terms are not reached. Payments will only be released if the terms are reached accordingly.

What else can you do with Ethereum

With Ethereum you can design and issue your own crypto currency or token. You can also create your own decentralized applications for any purposes it may serve.

Start exploring Ethereum and you will find out that you can do many more on Ethereum

That’s it for now guys. Till next time.