Ethereum (ETH) was proposed in late 2013 and brought to life in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. While it is a cryptocurrency, Ethereum's primary purpose extends beyond the simple transfer of value. Instead, Ethereum is designed to be a platform that allows peer-to-peer contracts and applications to be built and run without any control, permission, or interference from third parties. These applications, known as decentralized applications or DApps, are powered by Ethereum's own cryptographic token, Ether (ETH).