Ethereum and Doge

[jaysabi]

I have two lines of questions about ethereum and doge, and I hope someone can explain it like I'm five, because all my attempts to find answers have left me more confused:

1) What does ethereum actually do? When I try to find an answer to this, all I get is fluffy language about it's potential and an ungodly amount of hype without any concrete explanation of what it does different than bitcoin. After reading several articles and watching videos of the developers describe it, it's all still so abstract and fluffy that I don't understand it. Everyone talks about how different it is from bitcoin, but I just see another altcoin that thinks it's going to change yada yada like every altcoin before it. Why is ethereum different?

2) I have surmised that ethereum and doge are now somehow connected, and that this is the cause of doge's rapid recent rise (from a market cap of roughly $15 million to now over $45 million and seemingly still rising). I have always viewed doge as a spammy inflation coin that will continue to devalue as it continues to inflate. But the recent tripling in market value has me wondering if my premise needs to be reevaluated, or if this is a temporary fluke. Has ethereum fundamentally changed doge's prospects as a cryptocurrency? And if so, how?

Anyone with a good understanding on either of the above points, please help me understand.

[stoat]

Something something dogethereum.

[KhalDrago]

god i hate doge so much, change the fcking brand ffs.

[benthach]

ether coin is pure hype and whales manipulation. it's a useless platform/language/coin or whatever they want to call it.

compare ether coin to internet;

internet you would have html, php or java language which is store in a server somewhere and need browser like chrome or firefox to display it. within this browser of firefox or chrome you would have the add-on or plugin program to enhance it.

ether coin would have something like github/blockexplorer which is store in a server somewhere else and would need browser like wallet to display it, in ethereruim coin case it is their mist browser wallet. what the rave and hype about etherium coin is it have the add-on or plugin which call dapp.

people must not realize any coins can creating their own plugin or dapp so they fall for the whales hype.

also you would probably hear something like dogecoin or other shitcoin is using etherium, basically these coins can connecting to etheruim and use it smart contract. etherieum smart contracts is a mess. at this point ether team is hittting a brick wall and threating they don't have anymore btc left to continue coding. chance is these guys stuck and can't code.
each of ether coin coders already pocketed millions and millions of dollars, it's going to be drag on for years as the coding is stuck and the whales hype on.

dogecoin, it's just a popular meme coin and nothing much to it.
when it come to crypto, adoption is king, dogecoin have much much more adoption and popularity.

[Snail2]

I have two lines of questions about ethereum and doge, and I hope someone can explain it like I'm five, because all my attempts to find answers have left me more confused:

1) What does ethereum actually do? When I try to find an answer to this, all I get is fluffy language about it's potential and an ungodly amount of hype without any concrete explanation of what it does different than bitcoin. After reading several articles and watching videos of the developers describe it, it's all still so abstract and fluffy that I don't understand it. Everyone talks about how different it is from bitcoin, but I just see another altcoin that thinks it's going to change yada yada like every altcoin before it. Why is ethereum different?

2) I have surmised that ethereum and doge are now somehow connected, and that this is the cause of doge's rapid recent rise (from a market cap of roughly $15 million to now over $45 million and seemingly still rising). I have always viewed doge as a spammy inflation coin that will continue to devalue as it continues to inflate. But the recent tripling in market value has me wondering if my premise needs to be reevaluated, or if this is a temporary fluke. Has ethereum fundamentally changed doge's prospects as a cryptocurrency? And if so, how?

Anyone with a good understanding on either of the above points, please help me understand.

At this moment ETH not doing too much, as it's still in development. According to my understanding the big thing in ETH is the embedded scripting language what makes possible to write all sorts of contracts and then automate these transactions according to some predefined conditions. Pretty much like NXT or Qora but more flexible.

DOGE stuff. I think this is the pretence for the currently ongoing DOGE pump: https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/3xc0co/dogeethereum_twoway_peg_i_wrote_up_an/. Not sure however how long this will last. According to this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1340074.msg13694226#msg13694226 3/4 of the volume comes from China, so the current upsurge (IMO) likely to be a big pump and dump (in the pump phase at this moment).

[rdnkjdi]

At this moment ETH not doing too much, as it's still in development. According to my understanding the big thing in ETH is the embedded scripting language what makes possible to write all sorts of contracts and then automate these transactions according to some predefined conditions. Pretty much like NXT or Qora but more flexible.

Right.  Here's an example that was written a yearish ago on Ethereum beta that shows a hypothetical government run on the blockchain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVupNB_uFwk

The idea is that the programming of the "contracts" are transparent in the same way that bitcoin's ledger is transparent.  Augur plans on using it to support a decentralized intrade ("If X event will happen betting").  IoT from IBM was using it to demonstrate washing machines that could order their own soap I think (not sure why you need the blockchain to do that) at CES.

The idea I took from of it was having a blockchain that could enforce agreements.  A decentralized exchange, betting, reputation systems (some people are building locks that interface with it for AirBNB / Uber type applications).  Charles was much better at explaining contracts.  Sadly - their marketing changed to "decentralize the internet" which is completely different than "programmable blockchain for contracts".

Several banks are looking into using the blockchain at keeping track of note swaps and the Ethereum technology (not public blockchain) is top of their list at this point.

There's also a lot of excitement around Casper which is supposed to be the end all for PoS scaling solution.  The idea of programmable contracts to eventually create the holy grail of autonomous organizations has been around for a long time.  Decentralized system to enforce the contracts is what a lot of the insider hype used to be built on.  Now everyone thinks they can program Rainbow 6 on the blockchain and create limewire on the blockchain and it's creating a lot of static.

Do your own research.  Look at who they have on their dev / adviser list. They've delivered.  They have also been stupidly wasteful with their money.  It's a mixed bag.

Tons of people have used all these buzzwords to pump their shitcoins ... hell XCoin was using it to pump their shit back in the day.  Don't get caught in the hype or the fud.  

[jaysabi]

At this moment ETH not doing too much, as it's still in development. According to my understanding the big thing in ETH is the embedded scripting language what makes possible to write all sorts of contracts and then automate these transactions according to some predefined conditions. Pretty much like NXT or Qora but more flexible.

Right.  Here's an example that was written a yearish ago on Ethereum beta that shows a hypothetical government run on the blockchain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVupNB_uFwk

The idea is that the programming of the "contracts" are transparent in the same way that bitcoin's ledger is transparent.  Augur plans on using it to support a decentralized intrade ("If X event will happen betting").  IoT from IBM was using it to demonstrate washing machines that could order their own soap I think (not sure why you need the blockchain to do that) at CES.

The idea I took from of it was having a blockchain that could enforce agreements.  A decentralized exchange, betting, reputation systems (some people are building locks that interface with it for AirBNB / Uber type applications).  Charles was much better at explaining contracts.  Sadly - their marketing changed to "decentralize the internet" which is completely different than "programmable blockchain for contracts".

Several banks are looking into using the blockchain at keeping track of note swaps and the Ethereum technology (not public blockchain) is top of their list at this point.

There's also a lot of excitement around Casper which is supposed to be the end all for PoS scaling solution.  The idea of programmable contracts to eventually create the holy grail of autonomous organizations has been around for a long time.  Decentralized system to enforce the contracts is what a lot of the insider hype used to be built on.  Now everyone thinks they can program Rainbow 6 on the blockchain and create limewire on the blockchain and it's creating a lot of static.

Do your own research.  Look at who they have on their dev / adviser list. They've delivered.  They have also been stupidly wasteful with their money.  It's a mixed bag.

Tons of people have used all these buzzwords to pump their shitcoins ... hell XCoin was using it to pump their shit back in the day.  Don't get caught in the hype or the fud.  

Thank you for this response, it was the most helpful so far. When I try to understand ethereum, I get a lot of noise about banks and blockchains, but not a lot of good information about "how." Everything I see talks about how banks are interested because of the "potential" without a lot of explanation as to what the "potential" is or what banking institutions look like when they use the blockchain. Do you have any more information about that, or things like this:

Several banks are looking into using the blockchain at keeping track of note swaps and the Ethereum technology (not public blockchain) is top of their list at this point.

[rdnkjdi]

http://www.coindesk.com/twelve-banks-blockchain-consortium-r3/

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/r3-connects-11-banks-distributed-ledger-using-ethereum-microsoft-azure-1539044

http://www.coindesk.com/digital-assets-50-million-blockchain-bitcoin-vc/

http://www.coinsetter.com/bitcoin-news/2015/09/01/blythe-masters-inventor-of-cds-discusses-blockchain-technology-2474

My understanding of how banks would use the blockchain is more along the lines of being able to do swaps and have it auditable without being in a single banks system.

While this is interesting and exciting ... keep in mind people use this shit to pump things to the moon.  My biggest hope would be that they would find enough utility to spend enough money to support ongoing open source of blockchain research (like linux).  Banks are never going to pump our altcoins to the moon.

[jaysabi]

http://www.coindesk.com/twelve-banks-blockchain-consortium-r3/

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/r3-connects-11-banks-distributed-ledger-using-ethereum-microsoft-azure-1539044

http://www.coindesk.com/digital-assets-50-million-blockchain-bitcoin-vc/

http://www.coinsetter.com/bitcoin-news/2015/09/01/blythe-masters-inventor-of-cds-discusses-blockchain-technology-2474

My understanding of how banks would use the blockchain is more along the lines of being able to do swaps and have it auditable without being in a single banks system.

While this is interesting and exciting ... keep in mind people use this shit to pump things to the moon.  My biggest hope would be that they would find enough utility to spend enough money to support ongoing open source of blockchain research (like linux).  Banks are never going to pump our altcoins to the moon.

Yes, this is my opinion too. I don't view any altcoin as serving a very legitimate market function because they aren't doing anything radically different than bitcoin. But I am also open to the idea that if an altcoin does something that is truly revolutionary, it could also serve a market function and earn a place next to bitcoin. And I simply don't understand Ethereum, all I was getting is that it had the potential to be revolutionary because of [insert hype about blockchains] and so on, and if it therefore does prove to be revolutionary and serve an important market function, the underlying cryptocurrency enabling all this future blockchain wizardry could become valuable.

But this doesn't seem likely to me at this point and with my limited understanding. I still hold the opinion that virtually all altcoins are eventually going to zero, because there's just no need for them to exist, and as they slowly depreciate over time, the ability to profit off pumping them also declines, which is the only function 99% of them serve currently. Once they lose even that, they're literally worthless.