Ethereum
a.k.a. ETH, Ether
A programmable blockchain that runs smart contracts and apps, with ether (ETH) as its coin.
Ethereum is a blockchain proposed by Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015. Its coin is ether (ETH). Where Bitcoin focuses on being money, Ethereum's big idea is that the chain can run smart contracts: programs that hold and move value by rules nobody can change once deployed.
Those programs run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine and power most of DeFi, NFTs and thousands of tokens. Every action costs a fee paid in ETH, known as gas.
In 2022, in an upgrade called The Merge, Ethereum switched from proof of work to proof of stake, slashing its energy use.
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