What is Ethereum: The All Purpose Blockchain?

Too Long; Didn't Read

Many of the services we use today have one thing in common: they are governed by a central body. When we deposit money into our bank, we trust our bank to keep our money safe. When we purchase insurance, we trust insurance companies to deliver on our agreed terms. Similarly, with our Gmail accounts, we trust Google to store our personal information securely and to maintain our privacy. The centralized model has been a business standard for hundreds of years, but history has proven that it has many flaws. Governments have a mixed track record of influencing third party services for information (Remember when the US government tried to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/08/technology-executives-white-house-isis-terrorism-meeting-silicon-valley-facebook-apple-twitter-microsoft?CMP=share_btn_tw" target="_blank">woo</a> over Silicon Valley?). Centralized business models offer convenience, but having a single point of failure makes them vulnerable to attacks as we repeatedly see in security breaches like the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/technology/yahoo-hack.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">Yahoo! hack</a> and, most recently, with <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/technology/business/equifax-data-breach/index.html" target="_blank">Equifax</a>.