3 ms·
Ethereum is a blockchain technology where every block contains a list of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) instructions. The EVM is a Turing-complete virtual machi
by seibelj 9y ago
Ethereum 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.