Ethereum (Ethereum Switzerland GmbH) is a long awaited blockchain technology that supports smart contracts, which are user-generated programs designed to execute a predetermined set of commands (agreed to by all parties) using a Turing-complete programming language. Smart contracts are a concept that can be used to securely execute a variety of services including domain name registries, financial exchange, crowdfunding, intellectual property agreements, and so on.

Today the Ethereum team announced the public launch of the first version of the platform.

“The Dev team joins me in thanking each and everyone of you for your support during the past year and half,” wrote Stephen Tual, chief communications officer at Ethereum. “The vision of a censorship-proof ‘world computer’ that anyone can program, paying exclusively for what they use and nothing more, is now a reality.”

The platform and protocol, first described by Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, in 2013 has come a long way since its inception through a long development period to this launch.

In that time, Ethereum has seen a test-case displayed at CES 2015 where IBM and Samsung revealed a demonstration of a blockchain-based technology named Adept that used Ethereum to deploy smart contracts. The proof of concept for Adept was a washing machine that could contract with a detergent supplier and delivery service when the machine ran out of detergent. The system could even exchange money for the service and then the self-executing smart contract would set the wheels in motion for the detergent to be delivered.

Ethereum is fueled by a cryptocurrency named Ether that is used as a medium of exchange for imitating smart contracts. Ether was originally sold during a presale to assist in crowdfunding the project, but those interested in using the Ethereum platform can still get it now: by becoming a miner on the Ethereum network, trade Ether for Bitcoin, or get it from a friend.

Installing and getting the tools running

The launch of Ethereum means that the first block of the blockchain—called the Genesis block, same as it is in the Bitcoin blockchain—has been generated and new blocks can be mined and added to write smart-contracts onto the chain.

The first set of tools to access and operate on the Ethereum blockchain have been released via the website. For a detailed set of instructions and a list of features within the Ethereum tools, there is a blog post available.

Users who run into trouble installing or utilizing the tools are urged to visit the Ethereum.org forums for support.

Image credit: Ethereum