ETHEREUM (ETH) – A BRIEF INTRO FOR INVESTORS
Among other things, Ethereum is an open source distributed computing platform, cryptocurrency, programming language, and new economic system. Through its blockchain-based platform it empowers developers to launch smart contracts and distributed applications, creating a myriad of potential use cases.
KEY FEATURES
- Developers can create their own smart contract applications and tokens on top of the Ethereum Virtual Machine
- Utilizes gas (Ethereum’s specific pricing for running contracts or transactions) to subsidize transaction costs across the network
- Creating enterprise solutions to run Ethereum on private blockchains for banks and financial institutions
- Originally designed with a proof-of-work consensus model, Ethereum plans to move to a proof-of-stake model sometime in 2018
- Ethereum smart contracts are written in Solidity programming language
OVERVIEW
COIN SUPPLY
While Ethereum has no supply limit, the amount of ether released in block mining is directly correlated to its price so as to not devalue the currency over time.
TECHNOLOGY
The turing completeness of Ethereum makes its capabilities drastically different than that of competitors such as Bitcoin. Smart contracts built on Ethereum enable developers to design any number of applications and uses to be built on top of its decentralized public blockchain.
PRIVACY
Ethereum operates as a public blockchain, meaning all transactions and wallets can be seen across the network, with personal information being withheld.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
The creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, gets most of the public attention, but the rest of the development team is integral in Ethereum’s success, the most notable of which is co-founder Gavin Wood who formulated the plan for smart contract writing in Solidity and has helped with the Casper development to switch Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.
VALUE PROPOSITION
Ethereum proposes that digital currency has far wider reaching possibilities than simply remittances or stores of value. Coupling a cryptocurrency with blockchain technology and smart contracts can allow for unlimited potential to create decentralized organizations and applications for the next iteration of the internet.
INVESTMENT SUMMARY
Creator Vitalik Buterin was only 19 years old when he created the revolutionary cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Buterin saw the potential to take digital currency and build on top of it a decentralized supercomputer for the world, utilizing smart contracts on a public blockchain. This led to the creation of an entirely new industry of decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols that utilize the trustless, decentralized nature of the Ethereum blockchain, while at the same time allowing for fully flexible programming.
Ethereum has with it birthed the opportunity for new digital currencies, known as ERC-20 tokens, to be built on top of the platform and operate using the Ethereum public ledger as their foundational layer.
Because Ethereum allows for turing complete protocols there is no end to the potential applications that can be built utilizing its functionality. Many of the biggest cryptocurrency projects in the industry, including EOS, Tron, and Augur are built on the Ethereum blockchain.
HOW TO BUY ETHEREUM
Ethereum quickly has become a household name across the cryptocurrency industry, and can be bought at almost every cryptocurrency exchange across the globe using fiat currency, Bitcoin, or most other tokens. Simply sign up for an exchange, register with the required verification information, deposit fiat currency or other cryptocurrency, and trade for ether.
EXCHANGES WHERE YOU CAN BUY ETHEREUM
| EXCHANGE | COIN PAIRS TRADED | |
| Binance | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| HitBTC | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| Livecoin | ETH/USD, BTC | |
| YoBit | ETH/USD, BTC | |
| Bibox | ETH/BTC, USDT | |
| BigONE | ETH/BTC | |
| Bit-Z | ETH/BTC | |
| BigONE | BCH/USDT, BTC | |
| BitBay | ETH/PLN | |
| BitBank | ETH/BTC | |
| Bitfinex | ETH/USD, BTC | |
| Bitstamp | ETH/USD, EUR, BTC | |
| Bitso | ETH/MXN | |
| Bittrex | ETH/USDT | |
| C2CX | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| CEX.IO | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| CoinEx | ETH/BTC, BCH | |
| Cryptopia | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| DSX | ETH/USD, EUR | |
| EXX | ETH/USDT, HSR, BTC | |
| Exmo | ETH/USD, EUR, RUB, UAH, BTC | |
| GDAX | ETH/USD, EUR, BTC | |
| Gate.io | ETH/BTC | |
| Gemini | ETH/USD, BTC | |
| Huobi | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| Kraken | ETH/USD, EUR, CAD, BTC | |
| Kucoin | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| Liqui | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| Lykke Exchange | ETH/USD, CHF | |
| OEX | ETH/CNY, BTC | |
| OKEx | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| Poloniex | ETH/USDT, BTC | |
| Quoine | ETH/USD, JPY, SGD, BTC | |
| Upbit | ETH/USDT | |
| WEX | ETH/USD, RUR, EUR, BTC, LTC, ZEC | |
| xBTCeBit | ETH/USD, EUR, RUB, BTC |
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