Ethereum

Developed by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum is a public, open-sourced Blockchain-based platform developed that features smart contracts.

Ethereum was created as a platform that has the ability for users to build programs without the involvement of middlemen, including central servers to store information that makes them less exposed to abuses of those middlemen and authorities.

Ethereum went live on July 30, 2015, and is the second major currency on the market with 45 billion dollars of capitalization.

In short, ethereum wants to be a ‘World Computer’ that would decentralize – and some would argue, democratize – the existing client-server model.