ELI5: I get Bitcoin, but how does Ethereum work?

[verifyas]

This is bitcointalk so chances are high you know what Bitcoin is. But what's the deal with this Ethereum thing people keep talking about? And how does it *actually* work?

Well, that's what we discuss in this new post:
https://medium.com/@verify.as/ethereum-the-a-b-c-a1c9055076f6

Hit reply if you'd like to know more, or want to suggest future topics for us to uncover.

[monkeydominicorobin]

The Ethereum works the way blockchain is intended to work which is to provide services. Like marriage contract in the blockchain or last will and testaments. It seeks to exploit the power of programming language to enforce the so-called smart contracts. No need for lawyers and pastors to administer marriages and last will and testaments. Which will definitely be advantageous and economical. Those are some easy to grasp aspects of Ethereum. Just do more research and you will get it immediately.

[Python2.5]

The big difference with ethereum is that its nodes store the most recent state of each smart contract, in addition to all of the ether transactions.
For each ethereum application, the network needs to keep track of the 'state', or the current information of all of these applications, including each user's balance, all the smart contract code and where it's all stored.

[malboroman]

 Ethereum is planning to start proof of stake concept at the end of this year / early next year. None can forecast how it will influence the currency. There is a high probability that current Ethereum miners will not be ready to shut down their existing mining capacities. This will result in new fork, which we saw in bitcoin during this year.

[verifyas]

Ethereum is planning to start proof of stake concept at the end of this year / early next year. None can forecast how it will influence the currency. There is a high probability that current Ethereum miners will not be ready to shut down their existing mining capacities. This will result in new fork, which we saw in bitcoin during this year.

Proof of Stake is definitely going to stir up change among the different players on the Ethereum network. Like any new change, it comes with some important benefits but requires the cooperation of all those parties to succeed. Since many miners already hold large reserves of Ethereum, there's a good chance they might not see PoS as a huge threat (given the opportunity to gain ETH from depositing some of the ETH they already have).

[BTCLovingDude]

i took a quick look at the article, it seems good. thanks for sharing it here. i will make sure to read it with more attention later.

Ethereum is planning to start proof of stake concept at the end of this year / early next year. None can forecast how it will influence the currency. There is a high probability that current Ethereum miners will not be ready to shut down their existing mining capacities. This will result in new fork, which we saw in bitcoin during this year.

Proof of Stake is definitely going to stir up change among the different players on the Ethereum network. Like any new change, it comes with some important benefits but requires the cooperation of all those parties to succeed. Since many miners already hold large reserves of Ethereum, there's a good chance they might not see PoS as a huge threat (given the opportunity to gain ETH from depositing some of the ETH they already have).

Miners will act selfishly as we have seen many times before. I think they will fork away or will go to ETC.
Thats why i think-> when ETH goes POS, i think ETC will moon.

but there is a big problem with this.
you are forgetting about the difficulty bomb which both ETH and ETC have. i don't remember seeing anything about ETC doing anything about it so they will be forced to change to PoS too. and there won't be anything left for miners to mine.

it is actually a lot more possible that ETH miners switch to mining Bitcoin Gold (BTG) since it will be released soon!

[verifyas]

Ethereum is planning to start proof of stake concept at the end of this year / early next year. None can forecast how it will influence the currency. There is a high probability that current Ethereum miners will not be ready to shut down their existing mining capacities. This will result in new fork, which we saw in bitcoin during this year.

Proof of Stake is definitely going to stir up change among the different players on the Ethereum network. Like any new change, it comes with some important benefits but requires the cooperation of all those parties to succeed. Since many miners already hold large reserves of Ethereum, there's a good chance they might not see PoS as a huge threat (given the opportunity to gain ETH from depositing some of the ETH they already have).

Miners will act selfishly as we have seen many times before. I think they will fork away or will go to ETC.
Thats why i think-> when ETH goes POS, i think ETC will moon.

Once Casper's out, someone will have to do a commercial analysis to see what the Risk/Return is for switching to PoS vs. forking. Miners can sell their hardware, will have lower electricity costs and lower staff costs. It's conceivable that this change could actually be more profitable for some miners.