Launched in 2015 by the visionary programmer Vitalik Buterin and a team of co-founders, Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and the foundational layer for the decentralized web. Unlike Bitcoin, which primarily serves as a store of value, Ethereum was designed as a "World Computer"—a programmable blockchain that enables developers to build and deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) without downtime or censorship. The network's native currency, Ether, is used to pay for "gas" fees to execute these transactions and, following the historic "Merge" upgrade in 2022, is now staked to secure the network under a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. This ecosystem spawned entire industries, including Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), cementing its status as the primary hub for blockchain innovation.
