Ethereum

Brokerages

These are coin exchanges where you can buy and sell Ether for a fee. They are extremely simple and intuitive to use by design but can be expensive. In most of them, you have the ability to purchase Ether through the usage of a FIAT currency such as USD, GBP, EUR and more through the usage of a credit card or a direct bank wire transfer.

A FIAT currency is a currency that is accepted by a government for the payment of taxes or debt, however, it is also a currency that is not pegged or backed by gold or other valuables.

Trading Platforms

These platforms connect the buyer and the seller in an exchange through the usage of a middleman (The Platform in Question). This is what most traders end up using in order to trade one cryptocurrency for another, such as purchasing Bitcoin through the use of Ether.

Peer-to-Peer platforms

These platforms allow users, both buyers and sellers to contact each other directly in order to negotiate their prices. This option is a lot riskier than the others as you are directly trading with someone you do not know.

There is no middle man, so you end up not having to pay for any fees and you can pay through the usage of cash as-well.

buy etherium

Contract Source Code Explained

The smart contracts within Ethereum are written in high-level programming languages and are compiled down to EVM bytecode while being deployed into the Ethereum blockchain.

They can be written in Solidity, a language library that is similar to C and JavaScript, or even Serpent which is similar to Python, and many more.

Source code and compiler information are typically published alongside the launch of the contract so that many users can see the code and verify that it has been compiled to the bytecode that is on-chain.

ERC-20 Tokens Explained

The ERC-20 Token Standard Allows for fungible tokens on the Ethereum Blockchain and numerous cryptocurrencies have launched as ERC-20 tokens while being distributed throughout the initial coin offerings. The fees that are required to send these ERC-20 tokens are all paid with Ether.

Decentralized Finance

Decentralized Finance, otherwise known as DeFi is a case of Ethereum and offers traditional financial instruments in a decentralized architecture. 

Through a process known as “wrapping”, DeFi protocols can allow for synthetic versions of assets such as bitcoin, gold and oil to become available and tradable on Ethereum and compatible with all of Ethereum’s wallets and applications.