What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is the pioneer of the general-purpose smart contract chain paradigm.
Background
Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin launched Ethereum in 2014. Famously, Vitalik thought of the initial idea for Ethereum after Blizzard nerfed his World of Warcraft character.
How Does It Work
To date, Ethereum is the largest PoS blockchain ecosystem, and its native currency, $ETH, is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap behind Bitcoin.
Ethereum has a rollup-centric scaling roadmap where user activity is encouraged to move up to rollups; Layer 2 blockchains that sit on top of Ethereum and inherit its robust security.
Key Takeaways
- Largest smart contract chain by TVL, apps, and activity.
- Ethereum has struggled under heavy use and is now pioneering roll-up and L2 scaling approaches.
- $ETH is the gas token for Ethereum and is used to pay transaction costs.
