Ethereum

Ethereum can be compared to Windows without going into too much detail. A platform where other parties can build decentralized applications by means of smart contracts. What are smart contracts? Smart contracts are basically programmable, conditional contracts. A simple example of a smart contract is: If party A meets predefined criteria, then send X amount to party A. If party A does not meet the set criteria, then do nothing. Since its launch, Ethereum has grown into an ecosystem that has grown explosively. The own digital currency of the Ethereum network, Ether, is currently number three in terms of market capitalization.

In 2012 the co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, Vitalik Buterin comes up with an idea. A platform where developers can build decentralized applications. He calls it Ethereum. Buterin publishes Ethereum's white paper in 2013. Many developers join the team after reading the whitepaper. In order to give extra gas to the project, Buterin and the other founders started a crowdfund campaign in 2014. More than $ 18 million is being raised. About a year later, the first version of Ethereum, called Frontier, is launched.

The innovation of Ethereum lies in the creation of a platform where developers can build decentralized applications through smart contracts. Currently there are an estimated 35,000 developers working on the Ethereum platform. This includes developers of other projects that work on the Ethereum ecosystem. How many developers actually work on the infrastructure itself is difficult to put but it is said that there are more developers working on the Ethereum blockchain than on any other blockchain. Including some of the most respected names in the industry. The most logical example is Vitalik Buterin, he is the best- known developer after Satoshi Nakamoto. The 24-year-old Russian is praised for his realistic and idealistic values.

How much this in total can not be said because this has not been determined exactly in advance. During the ICO of Ethereum in 2015 72 million Ether were distributed among investors and developers. Since then an additional 31 million Ether in rewards has been created. These rewards are for miners, miners are computers that control and update the Ethereum blockchain.