What is ethereum?

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation and execution of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). It was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and development began in early 2014, with the network officially launching on July 30, 2015.
Unlike Bitcoin, which primarily serves as a digital currency, Ethereum is designed to be a platform for building decentralized applications using blockchain technology. Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code. These contracts run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), a decentralized runtime environment.
The native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform is called Ether (ETH), and it is used to compensate participants who perform computations and validate transactions on the network. Miners, who validate transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain, are rewarded with Ether.
Ethereum has gained significant attention and popularity for its versatility in supporting a wide range of decentralized applications and projects. It has also been a key driver of the initial coin offering (ICO) trend, allowing projects to raise funds by issuing their own tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
One of Ethereum's significant milestones is the transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, known as Ethereum 2.0 or ETH 2.0. This upgrade aims to improve scalability, security, and sustainability by replacing mining with staking for transaction validation.
Overall, Ethereum plays a crucial role in the development of decentralized applications and the broader blockchain ecosystem, contributing to the growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other innovative blockchain-based projects.