### As @silverstackeruk mentioned, I entered a learning process when I started to shift my focus from blogging to trying to understand the technology behind crypto. 
And it has been a steep learning curve ever since, and it still is. Sometimes I literally have my hands in my hair and I read the same pieces of text 40x to try to understand what is really there. But all this information that I read does get stuck somewhere in my brain. As a result of which I slowly but surely get more and more knowledge, and also the accompanying confidence to make my own decisions, without first asking for confirmation from other people 33 times.

My personal wallet is not that big, so that makes it even more essential for me to make good decisions so that what I have to spend can grow a little every time.

### For a long time I ignored the Ethereum.

<center> ![money.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmVA9DwtwKzijokwBF5BSH7k6nxEVLqrdRJySFQmymxqNX/money.png) </center>

But to now also better understand what LBI will be doing, as soon as the Wleo becomes part of the investments, I have decided to start a **little flirt with Ethereum**. And then we have to wait and see whether we will like each other enough in the end. **Although fortunately I only have to produce content for LBI**, I still think it is necessary that I also understand where the earnings come from LBI, so that I can also understand where the value of my LBI token will come from, in addition to the value that the token has, and grows, through curation.

Through this little flirt I hope I get to know the basics of Ethereum. The next step will be to understand token wrapping, but I'm not that far yet today.

### Starting at the beginning is always my way of understanding things.

So back to 2013, when Vitalik Buterin is working as a programmer and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine. He had developed the idea that Bitcoin needed a scripting language to develop applications (DAPPS). The majority of Bitcoin Magazine disagreed. And Buterin started with the Ethereum Whitepaper. In 2014, Ethereum will be announced at the bitcoin conference in Miami, and in 2015 Ethereum will be rolled out. So you could say that Ethereum was created due to a lack of functionalities in Bitcoin? Because this also immediately makes one of the biggest differences between the two cryptos clear.

### Ethereum is a Universe
We all talk about Ethereum, but this is actually not the name of the coin! The coin's name is Ether, and Ethereum is the whole platform, the whole blockchain. And this one actually has much more potential than the Bitcoin blockchain. So both, Bitcoin and Ether, use blockchain technology to process payments. But this is also the only thing Bitcoin does with this technology. And Ethereum goes a lot further in that. Although there is a coin associated with it, Ethereum's main purpose is not to support that coin. The main purpose of the Ethereum blockchain is to develop applications, and for that the Ethereum blockchain can be used by anyone. That is the main goal of the Ethereum blockchain, and therefore also a great strength, and a very significant difference from Bitcoin.
<br>
> You can see it as: With the Bitcoin blockchain, Bitcoin is also the goal of the entire blockchain. With Ethereum, the Ether is just the means for the blockchain to function.
<br>
### More differences
Another big difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum is that Ethereum no longer sticks to the Proof of Work protocol. Ethereum will use the Proof of Stake protocol. In the case of Ethereum you must have at least 32 Ethers to be able to participate. If you don't have 32 Ethers available, there are still the staking pools. And this is often the case on exchanges where you only have to hold your Ethers to enjoy some dividends on your Ethers. In this case, you choose to participate in the stake and the exchange will stake your Ethers in their pool. I think how much dividend you will receive on this will differ per exchange, but I do not dare to state this with certainty. I would like to hear from people who have experience with this whether this is an interesting option if you do not have 32 Ethers yourself.

Okay, so these are already two big differences between Ethereum and Bitcoin. But there are still a few notable differences. To know that Ethereum allows both transactions WITH and WITHOUT permission. Bitcoin only allows transactions WITH permission.

Finally, Ethereum's block time is significantly shorter than Bitcoin's. Especially with mining you notice a difference here. In a shorter time, many more Ethereum blocks can be mined than Bitcoin. The original Ethereum block time is set at 15 seconds, which is a huge difference from Bitcoin where this block time is 10 minutes. In Ethereum this works a bit different, every 15 seconds, a block is added to the chain, and 3 Ethers are minted.

### SMART CONTRACTS

One of the best known uses of Ethereum is the Smart Contracts. A computer program or transaction protocol designed to automatically perform, monitor, or document legally relevant events and actions under the terms of a contract or agreement

All conditions are pre-programmed in a smart contract. There is then no need for mutual trust, the contract only responds if there is the right input. An example of this would be to convert a rental contract into a Smart Contract. According to the contract, the tenant must pay 600 euros to the landlord every month. If this has not happened, the Smart Contract automatically sends a signal to the Lessor, to the Tenant, and in a totally automated process this could even be extended so far that the Smart Contract sends a signal to the relevant door that would then no longer be opened. Nobody has to check. No administrative staff to check whether the rent has been transferred to the landlord's account. No administrative staff to make contact with the tenant, and no bailiff to lock the door. A Smart Contract can perform all these actions.

**One of the most important features of a Smart Contract is that you do NOT have to rely on a third party to fulfill certain conditions**. You agree once with agreements made and the consequences of fulfilling these agreements are inexorable. The Smart Contract is objective and acts according to the agreements made. That is also where the greatest criticism lies. The Smart Contract leaves no room for exceptions and there is no room for humanity.

In the case of a Smart Contract on the Ethereum blockchain, we are talking about a kind of Ethereum account. This means that they have a balance and can send transactions over the network. However, they are not managed by a user, but are deployed and run on the network as programmed. User accounts can then communicate with a smart contract by submitting transactions that perform a function defined in the smart contract. Smart contracts can define rules, such as a regular contract, and automatically enforce them through the code

The EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) is the environment where all Smart Contracts are stored and managed. I will not go into this further because it would become WAY TOO EXTENSIVE. But if you feel like it, you can always check out the [Yellowpaper](https://web.archive.org/web/20180203110042/http://yellowpaper.io/) here.

And then I got to that part that has been THE reason for me to ignore Ethereum for a long time. 

### The Gas fees!
Because in order to successfully complete transactions on the Ethereum network, you have to pay a so-called GAS fee. This fee was created to prevent spam transactions, and is also a reward for the miners to continue mining. The fees can always be checked on, among others, [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/) and [EthGasStation](https://ethgasstation.info/). And we all know it can be pretty high. For me, with the little Ether I had, it always seemed a waste of money and totally not profitable to even try to gather some Ethers. Do I regret that? Hmmm, that is a good question! And the answer is probably "YES". Because even though I have a lot of faith in crypto on general. I do feel that in the very long run there will be a lot of them disappearing or going to be worthless. But I don't see that happen to Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

**In a nutshell, I have now told you the most important things I learned about Ethereum, but tomorrow there will certainly be *PART 2*, because there is still enough for me to discover about Ethereum! And of course, I would be more than happy with your input. What should I take into account?** 
<br>

<center>  ![thinking.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmdZfKAzonpVp4Mx9rp5Xdg3iwajsNBgmFXTZngNSNgVuN/thinking.png) </center> 

<sup>By the way, so far this flirtation is a challenge in itself. But I don't know yet if Ethereum is really my type.</sup>


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