Ethereum is een peer-to-peer netwerk van virtuele machines, die elke developer kan gebruiken om distributed applications (Dapps) te draaien. Deze computerprogramma’s kunnen verschillende dingen zijn, maar het netwerk is geoptimaliseerd om regels uit te voeren wanneer bepaalde condities voldaan zijn, zoals een contract. Ethereum maakt gebruik van zijn eigen gedecentraliseerde blockchain om deze contracten cryptografisch te bewaren, uit te voeren en te beschermen. Deze contracten worden ook wel smart contracts genoemd.
Each computer on their network first downloads a small virtual machine to synchronize with the Ethereum blockchain, then these computers remain available to execute contracts. This network provides the security, reliability and computing power to execute these designed schemes. Of course, the network is not free or private, so developers use it only when their data can be public. The Ethereum Blockchain is also publicly accessible.
Although most examples of these contracts show various human actions, the technology is more often used for Industrial purposes such as rigorous business logic between organizations or machine-to-machine communications.
How is Bitcoin different from Ethereum?
While Bitcoin competes with Paypal and online banking, ETH seeks to use the blockchain to replace between parties that store data, transfer mortgages or keep complexes of financial document, for example. The financial industry likes the promise of an auditable blockchain, but not the lack of privacy.
