Programmable crypto with smart contracts and apps

• Ethereum is a world computer running on nodes distributed worldwide. It runs on a blockchain secured by miners executing a Proof of Work consensus algorithm, with plans to move to a Proof of Stake consensus algorithm.
• Ether (ETH) is the currency which is used to run smart contracts on the Ethereum platform. Ethereum provides the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) a decentralized Turing-complete virtual machine. “Gas”, an internal transaction pricing mechanism, is used to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network.
• Ethereum was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 and the public network went live in in July 2015. The average blocktime in Ethereum is about 15-20 seconds.