[Bitcoin Beginners] - Why is Ethereum so hot?

Well here’s the short version: Ethereum is decentralized, like Bitcoin, but is capable of much, much more.

The way Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network is decentralized and distributed, where every participant is a client and a server at the same time, allows for unprecedented increase in that network’s security and resilience.

In legacy systems, where the entire network is handled by a single server entity, it becomes a weak point, which may be exploited by potential attackers.

On the other hand, decentralized networks are:

• Very resistant towards hacker attacks;
• Have zero downtime, even if some of their parts go down;
• Are not run by specific, limited number of people (having people in charge can cause additional problems, both intentionally and unintentionally, due to the notorious human factor).

In addition to all those characteristics, one of the most important features of blockchain and, by extension, Bitcoin is the integrity of data.

Records of every transaction ever made in the Bitcoin network can be accessed by anyone, are easily traceable to the pseudonyms of the sender and receiver (but not to their real-life identities), and are virtually unalterable.

Thus, nobody can trick each other, by, for example, spending the coins which they don’t actually have.

These advantages are very important for a payment protocol, but some developers have quickly realized that that utility doesn’t end with one simple use case.

Basically, any area, where you need to keep a registry of some data, can be made more secure and efficient with the blockchain:

• Domain names;
• Ownership records;
• Business contracts, etc.