Ether

About Ether

Ether (ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that pioneered smart contract functionality. Proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 and launched in July 2015, ETH serves as the primary asset for paying transaction fees (gas), securing the network through staking, and acting as a programmable foundational layer for decentralized applications (dApps). Following "The Merge" in September 2022, the network transitioned to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, significantly reducing its energy consumption and introducing a deflationary fee-burning mechanism via EIP-1559. ETH functions as a triple-point asset: a capital asset when staked (earning rewards), a consumable asset (burned during transactions), and a store of value used as collateral for NFTs and DeFi protocols. The asset is widely adopted by traditional institutions, and in 2024, the approval and listing of spot Ethereum ETFs in the United States marked a major milestone for institutional exposure. Ethereum's roadmap focuses on increasing transaction capacity to over 100,000 per second while maintaining security and decentralization.