[Legends] Ethereum questions answered

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a public blockchain platform with programmable transaction functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine that can execute peer-to-peer contracts using a cryptocurrency called Ether. Ethereum was initially proposed by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and in 2014 he described it as "A Next-Generation Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Application Platform". Development was funded by a crowd sale in August 2014.

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Why should I even invest in this? It's just another cryptocurrency.

Some may say that but Ethereum has had a large price raise in 2016. Just some time ago the price rolled around the $18-20 range. Ethereum will most likely rise again and many do speculate that.

How can I receive/send Ethereum?

You can either download the entire Ethereum platform from here. If you don't want to download the whole thing, you can use this web wallet. If you're a beginner in the cryptocurrency world or are generally new to Ethereum, I suggest using the web wallet as it's very simple and beginner friendly.

Sounds neat! Where can I get some Ethereum?

If you're looking to buy Ethereum with PayPal, I suggest using the HF currency exchange section. If you're looking to pay with Perfect Money, Perfect Money Voucher, OKPAY, Payeer, AdvCash, BTC-e or with pretty much any other cryptocurrency, you can buy Ethereum at a very good rate at a CE site called changer.

https://www.changer.com/

You can also exchange cryptocurrencies (including ETH) on Shapeshift:

https://shapeshift.io/

How can you support HF with Ethereum?

You can now buy an official award with Ethereum. It's called "Ethereist". It currently costs $20 and you can get it by clicking on the link below and selecting the "Ethereist" award.

https://hackforums.net/buyawards.php

Where can I track the price of Ethereum?

CoinMarketCap
CoinGecko
EthereumWisdom
WorldCoinIndex

There are many more of these sites but these are just some of the most popular ones.

Why is Ethereum so great?
Bitcoin was supposed to be programmable money, that's why it initially gained so much popularity when it wasn't as much of a currency yet as it is today. However, in the past 4 years, the "programmable" still hasn't taken off due to developers and the community all focusing their attention on the blocksize debate etc. Ethereum stepped in to fill in that gap. They have designed a Turing-complete scripting language on the Ethereum network, which makes it much easier and convenient for programmers to actually start building programmable money. Through Ethereum, it is now possible to write Smart Contracts (programmable money) and that for any currency you wish, including Bitcoin.

How does the relationship between BTC and ETH work?

So Ethereum and Bitcoin can be see as a couple that can strengthen each other. But Ethereum can exist and work entirely without Bitcoin. From Bitcoin's point of view, things are different. As long as the Bitcoin community doesn't get their shit together and aren't completing the "programmable" money part in the Bitcoin network because they stay too busy fighting each other, Bitcoin will not have easy programmable money without the help of Ethereum.

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Where can I track transactions, addresses and such for ETH?

Just like Bitcoin has numerous services that can track your transactions, addresses and much more, ETH has it's own services/sites just like the BTC ones.

EtherChain
EtherScan
Ether.Fund

Those are just some of them most popular currently available ETH block explorers.

Where can I access all of the current ETH statistics easily and fast?

You can do so very simply. Click on the below link and, on the top, you will instantly be presented with all the latest information and stats on ETH (price, difficulty, block time, hash rate, TX per hour etc).

https://etherchain.org/

You can also find even more specific information on ETH by clicking on "Statistics" and selecting what you want to know.

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