What is Ethereum - Overview

What is Ethereum - Overview

A sleek intro to Infinity Machine.

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Jharoo_
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2 min read

Intro

I guess this is the article I should have started the whole series, but hey.. A dose of creative chaos makes life more interesting ;)

Note: This is a very high level overview of what Ethereum is, it was done for people not familiar with it and should provide a very sleek introduction to non-crypto individuals.

General definition

But... WHAT IS ETHEREUM?

Ethereum is basically a Blockchain with a feature of running applications on it.
But that’s a flat, boring and uninspiring definition..

The real definition should be in my opinion:

Ethereum is a community-driven platform to create apps or organisations You’ve ever dreamt of creating.

Features

It has it’s own cryptocurrency called ETH, thanks o which apps can function and users can exchange value without any third party. (No middle man, like bank, Stripe or any other) And what is even more important, every transaction is transparent and public! (Take a look at etherscan.io)

What is also important is that Ethereum is completely censorship-free. There is no other authority than the community. If the community decides, democratically, that something should become a fact in the Ethereum.. it will. As there are no other stakeholders, no other people pulling the strings, no almighty company or enterprise that would suddenly step in.. YOU & the others alike are THE AUTHORITY.

What is so revolutionary about Ethereum though.. is the possibility of creating Apps on it. The so called Smart Contracts. I will make a more detailed article about it, but what You should know: A “Smart Contract” is a code living on blockchain that can be programmed to DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! 💠

For Example:

  • It can govern your own, new cryptocurrency (ERC-20 coins)
  • It can make your NFT project come to life (check opensea.io)
  • it can allow your DAO (Decentralised, Autonomous Organisation) to exist
  • MAKE SURE AN AGREEMENT IS UNBROKEN, so sorry Lawyers or Judges, but some portion of your position will be not needed anymore (more in Smart Contract article soon).
  • Many, many more… As imagination has no limits.

Architecture - bird eye view

From the architectural point of view, Ethereum is a collection of Nodes (servers) that run specialised software. Every of these nodes possess the same version of Ethereum blockchain and they synchronise constantly making sure it stays that way.

In a diagram it would look like that:

Sketches 7.png

So that would wrap the general concept of what Ethereum is.

Smart Contracts in depth: SOON 👍🏻

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