Difference between revisions of "Ethereum"

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== Ethereum news ==
 
== Ethereum news ==
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*2015-07-25: [https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/07/22/frontier-is-coming-what-to-expect-and-how-to-prepare/ Frontier is coming – what to expect, and how to prepare] ''- Stephen Tual discusses the impending Frontier release and what it means''
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*2015-07-22: [https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/07/22/frontier-is-coming-what-to-expect-and-how-to-prepare/ Frontier is coming – what to expect, and how to prepare] ''- Stephen Tual discusses the impending Frontier release and what it means''
 
*2015-03-03: [https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/03/03/ethereum-launch-process/ Vinay Gupta describes how the release process will work]
 
*2015-03-03: [https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/03/03/ethereum-launch-process/ Vinay Gupta describes how the release process will work]
 
*2014-11-19: [http://www.coinssource.com/ethereum-vitalik-answers-counterpartys-call/ Vitalik Answers Counterparty’s Call]
 
*2014-11-19: [http://www.coinssource.com/ethereum-vitalik-answers-counterpartys-call/ Vitalik Answers Counterparty’s Call]

Revision as of 17:38, 25 July 2015

Ethereum is a crypto-currency that has been under development since about 2013 and is lead by Vitalik Buterin. The Ethereum business is based in Crypto valley in Switzerland. Ethereum is not just another "alt coin" though, it really is the next generation of this paradigm, taking it out of the basic currency role by offering full-scale general purpose distributed application development and testing framework. Ethereum does still have an associated currency aspect called "Ether" (ETH) which performs the important role of "fuel" in the Ethereum network. Distributed applications in the Ethereum network require payments in the form of Ether to fuel every computational step and storage operation on the system.

Bitcoin and Litecoin are often thought of as the gold and silver of the crypto-currencies. To continue with that analogy, Ethereum could be considered as the "oil" of crypto-currency since it plays the role of fuel which can be used for any generic application. Another interesting and important aspect is that Ethereum could help to pave the way towards how a real-world resource-based economy might be implemented, which seems to be the only viable way to transcend the economic bottom-line problem.

How Ethereum relates to the Organic Design vision

How can you even assess whether something has a stable value? it's not very useful for something to have a stable price with respect to current currencies since they themselves are devaluing (USD has lost 90% of it's value since the federal reserve act of 1913).

Ideally prices should reflect the true cost of their production, but under the current system such costs are externalised so that, for example, when we buy a cellphone for $50 there's actually another $1000 being subsidised by the poorer nations, so in many areas the true cost should be much higher.

But on the other hand there's also the fact that our current system thrives on inefficiency. We live under a system that pays people to turn a blind eye to allow disasters such as the BP gulf of Mexico oil spill and Fukoshima to occur because they boost the economy. Even our measurement for how well we're doing as a nation, GDP, looks better if we can waste, destroy or pillage more. If the system didn't have an economic bottom line it would be far more efficient, making costs in many areas lower.

So a properly designed system of money is really not possible without a proper design for society as a whole, but of course this cannot happen using the rules of the current system. Voting is not a solution, the best it can do is offer some control over how fast we destroy ourselves, but remember that whoever you vote for is a vote to keep the current system running.

That means we, the people, have to start building this new society ourselves, and while we don't know everything about the way it must work, we do know that it must be decentralised, transparent and accountable and should be a general framework on which groups, organisations and institutions of all kinds can operate.

And this is exactly what Ethereum is about. It takes the ideas behind Bitcoin and extends them to contracts in general, and then shows how one can build organisations from collections of contracts working together.

Ether

Ethereum has an associated currency aspect called "Ether" (ETH) which performs the important role of "fuel" in the Ethereum network. Distributed applications in the Ethereum network require payments in the form of Ether to fuel every computational step and storage operation on the system.

Bitcoin and Litecoin are often thought of as the gold and silver of the crypto-currencies. To continue with that analogy, Ethereum could be considered as the "oil" of crypto-currency since it plays the role of fuel which can be used for any generic application. Another interesting and important aspect is that Ethereum could help to pave the way towards how a real-world resource-based economy might be implemented, which seems to be the only viable way to transcend the economic bottom-line problem.

On 23 July 2014 the "Genesis Sale" began which will last for 42 days and allows Ether to be pre-purchased with Bitcoin in the form of a cold-storage wallet that can be converted to Ether after the network is established in late 2014 or early 2015.

Ether will be mined and probably use a hybrid proof-of-work/proof-of-stake system that should have a very quick block time of around 12 seconds and use Turing-completeness to make FPGA/ASIC hardware infeasible for mining. Ether will not be issued at more than 26% per annum of the initial genesis sale total.

Related Ethereum projects

Ethereum news

Ethereum links

See also

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