Nut that I am, For several years I have daily monitored forex currency and metals prices at: https://www.investing.com/indices/major-indices Specifically of late, I have been following the Swiss Franc/Dollar pair (CHF/USD) because, the gnomes in swissland are well known as the joo worldwide moneymasters.
Well, Imagine my surprise when I went to the site today and the pair was not listed among the eight defaults (most highly traded) under the 'forex' tab on the right hand tabs at the above site. In its place was this thing called ETH/USD.
We now have two intangible 'currencies' in the 8 most traded. Figments.. Bitcoin and Ethereum. Ethereum is obviously a play on 'ether'. That invisible 'medium' which is 'everywhere' and said to contain everything not visible, from radio waves to thoughts.
Since the joo currency, the Swiss Franc, has been relegated to insignificance among the top eight, one would do well to keep their eye on the inbound economic SHTF as all currencies dissapear into the 'ether'.
You will most probably soon see the ethereum used in world trade, as Bitcoin will soon fade, along with all other fiat, as the joo swiss gnomes make a play to maintain their world economic supremacy.
So, as you bend over again, here is one description of "Ethereum'. LOL. At least it is appropriately named.
Have fun.
Watchman
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What is Ethereum? A Step-by-Step Beginners Guide [Ultimate Guide]
If you want to know what is Ethereum and how it works and what it can be used for, without going deep into the technical abyss, this guide is perfect for you.
Important Note: This guide assumes a basic understanding of blockchain technology. If you’re unfamiliar with blockchain, check out this step by step introduction for beginners.
What is Ethereum Guide?
Beyond Bitcoin & first generation decentralized applications
Although commonly associated with Bitcoin, blockchain technology has many other applications that go way beyond digital currencies. In fact, Bitcoin is only one of several hundred applications that use blockchain technology today.
What is Ethereum? A Step-by-Step Beginners Guide
“[Blockchain] is to Bitcoin, what the internet is to email. A big electronic system, on top of which you can build applications. Currency is just one.” Sally Davies, FT Technology Reporter
Until relatively recently, building blockchain applications has required a complex background in coding, cryptography, mathematics as well as significant resources. But times have changed. Previously unimagined applications, from electronic voting & digitally recorded property assets to regulatory compliance & trading are now actively being developed and deployed faster than ever before. By providing developers with the tools to build decentralized applications, Ethereum is making all of this possible.
What is Ethereum for beginners?
At its simplest, Ethereum is an open software platform based on blockchain technology that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications.
Is Ethereum similar to Bitcoin? Well, sort of, but not really.
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is a distributed public blockchain network. Although there are some significant technical differences between the two, the most important distinction to note is that Bitcoin and Ethereum differ substantially in purpose and capability. Bitcoin offers one particular application of blockchain technology, a peer to peer electronic cash system that enables online Bitcoin payments. While the bitcoin blockchain is used to track ownership of digital currency (bitcoins), the Ethereum blockchain focuses on running the programming code of any decentralized application.
In the Ethereum blockchain, instead of mining for bitcoin, miners work to earn Ether, a type of crypto token that fuels the network. Beyond a tradeable cryptocurrency, Ether is also used by application developers to pay for transaction fees and services on the Ethereum network.
gavin-wood-smart-contracts
“Bitcoin is first and foremost a currency; this is one particular application of a blockchain. However, it is far from the only application. To take a past example of a similar situation, e-mail is one particular use of the internet, and for sure helped popularise it, but there are many others.” Dr Gavin Wood, Ethereum Co-Founder
What is a smart contract?
Smart contract is just a phrase used to describe computer code that can facilitate the exchange of money, content, property, shares, or anything of value. When run on the blockchain a smart contract becomes like a self-operating computer program that automatically executes when specific conditions are met. Because smart contracts run on the blockchain, they run exactly as programmed without any possibility of censorship, downtime, fraud or third party interference.
While all blockchains have the ability to process code, most are severely limited. Ethereum is different. Rather than giving a set of limited operations, Ethereum allows developers to create whatever operations they want. This means developers can build thousands of different applications that go way beyond anything we have seen before.
What is Blockchain Technology? A step-by-step guide than anyone can understand
“ [Ethereum] blockchain has some extraordinary capabilities. One of them is that you can build smart contracts. It’s kind of what it sounds like. It’s a contract that self executes, and the contract handles the enforcement, the management, performance and payment” Don Tapscott
The Ethereum Virtual Machine
Before the creation of Ethereum, blockchain applications were designed to do a very limited set of operations. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, for example, were developed exclusively to operate as peer-to-peer digital currencies.
Developers faced a problem. Either expand the set of functions offered by Bitcoin and other types of applications, which is very complicated and time-consuming, or develop a new blockchain application and an entirely new platform as well. Recognizing this predicament, Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin developed a new approach.
What is Blockchain Technology? A step-by-step guide than anyone can understand
“I thought [those in the Bitcoin community] weren’t approaching the problem in the right way. I thought they were going after individual applications; they were trying to kind of explicitly support each [use case] in a sort of Swiss Army knife protocol.”
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