Blockchain: A Practical Guide to Developing Business, Law, and Technology Solutions
by Joseph J. Bambara, Paul R. Allen, Kedar Iyer, Rene Madsen, Solomon Lederer, Michael Wuehler
5 Technology on Ethereum
The simplest way to describe Bitcoin is to say that it is cryptocurrency or digital money. Bitcoin was released in January 2009, so for approximately nine years it has been used to transfer money in a peer-to-peer blockchain network. There is no central or world bank entity that controls the flow or functionality of Bitcoin; it is a decentralized digital currency. When compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum differs mainly in that it adds the functionality of the smart contract to its base cryptocurrency, known as ether. What does smart contract mean? Well, think of it as digital money that has logic associated with it. A smart contract can be set up to transfer value from one entity or account to another, and to do this if—and ...
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