Ethereum — The Most Popular Open-Source Blockchain Platform
Ethereum, the second-most popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, is a decentralized, open-source, and distributed computing platform. It enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized apps, also known as DApps. Smart contracts are protocols that authenticate, facilitate, or impose the negotiation and performance of some sort of agreement. For example, it can be used to denote a legal contract imitating the logic of contractual clauses or a financial contract signifying responsibilities of the automated flows of value.
Put simply, a smart contract is an auto-implementing, programmed agreement recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. It functions depending on an if, then logic, so that if x action happens, then y action occurs. Here’s how the Ethereum Foundation defines smart contracts:
“Smart contracts are applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.”
Now, let’s see what that means:
- Downtime: The apps never shut down without giving prior notification and can never be switched off.
- Censorship: Ethereum nodes are spread all across the…
