What is Ethereum?
Ethereum was created in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin to let anyone “write smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps).” ( you can read more via the Ethereum whitepaper)

How does Ethereum work?
Ethereum is the world's 2nd most popular cryptocurrency. Like Bitcoin, it's built on the blockchain and is decentralized, immutable, and open.

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum's goal is to become the world's decentralized computer (EVM or the Ethereum Virtual Machine). To understand what that even means, let’s define the following:

1- Ether is Ethereum’s digital token. Ether is a store of value like Bitcoin, but its main purpose is to reward nodes on the ethereum blockchain for processing transactions.

2- Gas is the amount of Ether paid to a node to process a transaction.

3- Smart contracts are code that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. This code is decentralized (stored across all nodes in the network), immutable (can’t be changed once committed to the blockchain), and open (anyone can view the code and use it).

4- Decentralized apps (dapp) combine a backend smart contract with frontend UI.

What are some examples of decentralized apps?
Ethereum allows anyone to build on an existing smart contract to create something new. This has led to the creation of thousands of dapps that power web3 use cases such as:

-Buying and selling NFTs ( visit OpenSea)‍

-Swapping tokens ( check out Uniswap)

- Lending and borrowing tokens (Compound)

- Earning income from playing games (see Axie Infinity).
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