Ethereum is an open source , public , blockchain -based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction-based state transitions. Ether is the cryptocurrency generated by the Ethereum platform as a reward to mining nodes for computations performed and is the only currency accepted in the payment of transaction fees. [4] Ethereum provides a decentralized virtual machine , the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. [5] The virtual machine's instruction set , in contrast to others like Bitcoin Script , is Turing-complete . "Gas", an internal transaction pricing mechanism, is used to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network. [5] Ethereum w...