Ethereum Overview

Ether is the cryptocurrency built on top of the open source Ethereum blockchain, which runs smart contracts. The cryptocurrency acts as a fuel that allows smart contracts to run unlike bitcoin, which is meant to be a unit of currency on a peer-to-peer payment network. Ether’s supply is not capped like that of bitcoin and its supply schedule, often described as minimum necessary to secure the network, is determined by members of Ethereum’s community. A majority of decentralized applications are based on Ethereum and the cryptocurrency accounts for the highest percentage of the total funds staked in the DeFi projects. Ethereum is scheduled to make a transition to proof-of-stake mechanism from the current proof-of-work mechanism in the later half of 2020.