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I'm not familiar with what "built on top of" means in this case, as it pertains to overall cryptocurrency value. Is it additional, actual coin with tradable val
by beager 9y ago
I'm not familiar with what "built on top of" means in this case, as it pertains to overall cryptocurrency value. Is it additional, actual coin with tradable value? Is it a derivative? Can someone describe in comparison to traditional means what this is?
- seibelj 9y agoEthereum is a blockchain technology where every block contains a list of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) instructions. The EVM is a Turing-complete virtual machine that allows arbitrary programs to be built upon it, making it much more powerful than Bitcoin, which (although it has a limited scripting language) is really just for transferring value. Every program in the EVM is called a "contract" but in reality it's a program. One of the fundamental contracts built atop Ethereum are additional coins, traditionally sold in an ICO. Most coins follow a protocol called ERC20 that allows them to be easily exchanged with any other ERC20 coin and Ether itself. In liquid markets, like for the Basic Attention Token (BAT), one can sell off a lot of BAT for Ether without tanking the market too much.