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Ethereum Software

Original author(s)	Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood
Developer(s)	Gavin Wood, Jeffrey Wilcke, Vitalik Buterin, et al.
Repository	github.com/ethereum
Written in	C++, Go, JavaScript, Python, Java, node.js, Haskell
Operating system	Linux, Windows, OS X, POSIX compliant
Type	Decentralized computing
License	GPL3, MIT, LGPL, et al
Website	www.ethereum.org

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency with a smart contract platform. The currency is called Ether. Ethereum was launched by Vitalik Buterin in the summer of 2015.

Ethereum was initially described by Buterin in late 2013, formally described by Gavin Wood in early 2014 in a so-called "yellow paper" and launched by Buterin 30 July 2015. It has been described as being a "next generation" (or "Bitcoin 2.0") platform.

Timeline

Important events in the development of Ethereum include:

• December 2013: Vitalik Buterin released a white paper.
• February 2014: The first open source project. Go and C++ proof of concept builds (PoC1) being released.
• April 2014: A "Yellow Paper" by Gavin Wood with specific technical details not included in the white paper is released.
• July 30, 2015: Launch of the beta (Frontier) Ethereum Blockchain.
• Spring 2016: Launch of public (Homestead) release. This includes changes in the economics (gas) structure of contract execution.
• Early 2017: Launch of graphical user interface (Metropolis).
• Late 2017: Launch of Serenity release, including proof-of-stake, state channels, and other ambitious changes.

Ether

The currency unit of the Ethereum platform is called Ether, used to pay for computational services on the network.

To finance development, Ethereum distributed the initial allocation of Ether via a 42-day public crowdsale, netting 31,591 bitcoins, worth $18,439,086 at that time, in exchange for about 60,102,216 Ether.

Contracts

Smart contracts are programs and protocols to facilitate the automated performance of a contract. Ethereum contracts can be implemented in various languages, compiled into bytecode for the Ethereum Virtual Machine before being deployed to the blockchain.

Every contract is run on every full Ethereum node simultaneously and the result is the consensus of the output. The documentation notes that computation on the EVM is "very expensive" and that "you will not be able to do anything on the EVM that you cannot do on a smartphone from 1999."

Implementations

The following full-node implementations of Ethereum are available:

• Geth, written in Go
• Parity, written in Rust
• Eth, written in C++
• Ethereum J, written in Java
• pyethapp, written in Python
• ethereumjs, written in JavaScript
• ethereumH, written in Haskell

References

1. Gray, Jeff (2014-04-07). "Bitcoin believers: Why digital currency backers are keeping the faith". The Globe and Mail. Phillip Crawley. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
2. ^ Vigna, Paul (28 October 2015). "BitBeat: Microsoft to Offer Ethereum-Based Services on Azure". The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
3. Buterin, Vitalik (2014-01-23). "Ethereum: A Next-Generation Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Application Platform". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
4. ^ Wood, Gavin (2014-04-06). "Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger" (PDF). gavwood.com. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
5. Tual, Stephan. "Ethereum Launches". Ethereum Blog. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
6. Kharif, Olga (2014-03-28). "Bitcoin 2.0 Shows Technology Evolving Beyond Use as Money". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
7. Buterin, Vitalik (2013-12-01). "A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform". Retrieved 16 Feb 2016.
8. Tual, Stephan. "C++ Code+Build FAQ". Ethereum Forum. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
9. "The symbol for Ether is..." Ethereum Forum. 7 June 2014. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
10. Genesis block
11. "The Issuance Model in Ethereum". Ethereum Blog.
12. "Crypto 2.0 Roundup: Block Chain Bloat, Ethereum Completes Presale and a Crypto Football Team". CoinDesk. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
13. https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/Ethereum-Development-Tutorial
14. go-ethereum homepage
15. Parity press release
16. Ethereum C++ Client GitHub repository
17. Ethereum J homepage
18. pyethapp GitHub repository
19. ethereumjs homepage
20. ethereum-client-haskell GitHub repository

Further reading

• Bartlett, Jamie (10 December 2014). "Soon, the internet will be impossible to control". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group.
• Cox, Ryan (12 February 2014). "Can Ethereum kill Bitcoin with self-executing contracts?". SiliconANGLE (Blog).
• Finley, Kurt (27 January 2014). "Out in the Open: Teenage Hacker Transforms Web Into One Giant Bitcoin Network". Wired. Condé Nast.
• Herbert, Stacy (1 March 2014). "Keiser Report: New Crypto Phenomenon Ethereum". Keiser Report. RT.
• Schneider, Nathan (7 April 2014). "Code your own utopia: Meet Ethereum, bitcoin's most ambitious successor". Al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera Media Network.

External links

• Official website

• Cross-platform software
• Cryptocurrencies