Ethereum, Ether and Smart Contracts

About Ethereum and Smart Contracts

Besides Bitcoin, Ethereum is the largest and most popular blockchain project, for which there are very good reasons. Let’s take a look at how Ethereum came to be and what the main innovations it has brought are. In 2014, a group of developers led by the then 20-year-old Canadian of Russian descent named Vitalik Buterin. in a publicly published white paper (white paper, brochure, basic instructions ...) presented a project called Ethereum

In short, Ethereum is an open blockchain network specific in that it has been developed in such a way enables the development and implementation of smart contracts and decentralized applications.This was not possible until Ethereum (ETH), all previous blockchain projects had the ability to record transactions and some other information, but this is the first blockchain to decentralize new or existing applications to its blockchain network.
In addition to the term Ethereum (blockchain network) we encounter the term Ether. Ether is a cryptocurrency that lives within the Ethereum blockchain network andaddition to the cryptocurrency property, Ether is the “fuel” of the entire system. Every transaction, record and interaction on the Ethereum network requires a certain amount of Ether.

For the purposes of creating applications and smart contracts, Ethereum has developed its own programming language, its own browser, with a set of necessary tools, thus pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Vitalik Buterin actually took the basic blockchain technology on which Bitcoin is based and significantly improved, refined and opened hitherto unimaginable possibilities of application and introduced us to a new era of development of second generation blockchain technology.

Immediately after the presentation of Ethereum, the whole crypto community showed great interest that continues to this day, so thousands of volunteers from around the world joined the development of Ethereum, but also companies and organizations, so that the Ethereum project and in the membership of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance - organizations dedicated to the industrial application of Ethereum are among others

Microsoft
Intel
Deloitte
Ernst & Young
Cisco Systems
Fujitsu
JP Morgan Chase & Co
OTP Bank Plc
UniCredit
and many others.

You can see the full list at https://entethalliance.org/members/

Note that Ethereum is no longer the only project of its kind, it has actually launched an avalanche of similar decentralized or partially decentralized blockchain projects that have emerged in the coming years and continue to emerge, each with its own strengths, development teams and ideas on how to achieve mass implementation . I will mention only the biggest:

Throne
Eos
Stellar
Cardano

What exactly can we do with smart contracts and decentralized applications?

An overview of the now available and usable decentralized applications (DApps) on the Ethereum network can be found here https://www.stateofthedapps.com/rankings/platform/ethereum where you will see that in addition to the games that most easily find their way to a large number of users, we have for example financial services such as MakerDAO;

Application that allows you to get a loan in cryptocurrencies (with a certain collateral - stake) and the whole process takes place through a smart contract; there is no administration to do the work, no paperwork, no going to an institution, no credit committee approval, no director or company to be the central place to make decisions. You access the smart contract directly and when the terms of the contract are met, the transactions are automatically executed in accordance with the terms, and everything is stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

Take for example the situation that you went on a trip and found out at the airport that your flight was canceled at the last minute, and since such an event is covered by your insurer's insurance policy which is actually an application or smart contract on blockchain, you will automatically flight cancellation - (which will activate the smart contract) get a pre-agreed amount of compensation on your account. Within a few minutes, you will receive, for example, 500 euros in your account, which you have at your disposal immediately, without the need to contact insurance, talk to an agent, fill out forms and wait for payment.
Just imagine all the changes that blockchain technology will bring to the labor market, reduce business costs, etc.

Let us now consider decentralized

Social networks where there is no possibility of censorship,there is no possibility to have your account terminated, collect your personal data which will later be sold or exposed to hacker attacks, or used against you in any way, moreover, let's go a step further and assume that your activity on these networks is financially rewarded in in accordance with a smart contract, so instead of the value created by your activities going to one central place, it is fairly distributed to those who created that value.

All this is achievable without an army of employees, without the need to believe in the honesty of any management or director. Fortunately, many such networks already exist today:

Cent
Steemit
Voice
Appisc
Minds
Gab
Yours

And many others that work and thrive, while new ones are constantly emerging, faster, more efficient with greater potential for mass application.
Blockchain technology is already rapidly changing the world, and real mass application has not even begun.