Since Ethereum is the number one player in the market after Bitcoin, we should talk quite a bit about them in this section.
Now the confusion with Ethereum is that it is both a crypto coin called an “Ether” and its also a technology that can be used to run apps and make contracts.
We’ll try to explain that shortly but it should be known that a large number of other coins rely on the technology from Ethereum to do their thing.
Ethereum is a Canadian company run by a group of guys who met at University (Waterloo in Canada) and at computer meetings.
Almost every conversation or project started or blockchain advancement has something to do with Ethereum.r.
There was a major controversial split in the company where about $50 million was almost stolen but to avoid that a major split in the operation was done or fork and two Ethereums were allowed to continue.
Vitalek Buterin is the 27 year old (as of 2021) cofounder of Ethereum and can be seen in many interviews on Youtube as the public face of the company.
Most coins and companies started in 2021 are using the software framework or the blockchain of Ethereum to advance their own startups in the crypto space.
Ethereum was widely criticized in 2021 for charging high gas fees for small transactions which resulted in many people changing over to the competitors.
Ethereum 2.0 is said to address alot of the gas fee issues.
We’ll later describe some of the differences with terms like POW (proof of work) which uses a lot of electricty gas fees and POS (proof of stake).
In the NFT world you will see whats called wrapped Ethereum.
For example a site called OpenSea is commonly used to buy and sell NFTs to people will see NFT art pieces for sale with the price listed as WETH some amount. That is just how Ethereum is listed but the buyers usually have their wallet tied into the OpenSea account and they will pay with actual Ethereum amounts without the Wrapped part.
(under construction Dec 16, 2021)