What Is Ethereum?

Sep 22, 2021

Reviewed by: Sumit Roy

Edited by: Sumit Roy

ETF.com Insight and Analysis
Ether is the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. Released in 2015, Ethereum is designed to be a general purpose blockchain platform. That’s in contrast to Bitcoin, which excels in its single use case as a digital currency, but isn’t as extensible.

Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, has likened Bitcoin to a pocket calculator and Ethereum to a smartphone.

In other words, a pocket calculator does its job well, but a smartphone can contain a variety of applications—one of which could be a calculator app. It’s this open-endedness that has put Ethereum squarely at the center of much of the innovation currently taking place in the crypto space. From decentralized finance (DeFi) to nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)—a lot of the excitement in crypto is happening on Ethereum

Sumit Roy

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Sumit Roy is the senior ETF analyst for etf.com, where he's worked for 12 years. Before joining the company, Roy was the managing editor and commodities analyst for Hard Assets Investor. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys climbing the city’s steep hills, playing pickleball and snowboarding.

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