Ask HN: Is Ethereum vaporware? - crablar
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mtmail
Since I had no idea what Ethereum is:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum)
"is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency that includes a virtual machine
featuring stateful user-created smart contracts and a Turing-complete contract
language."

[https://www.ethereum.org/](https://www.ethereum.org/)

At least this article/opinion seems to think it's not vaporware
[http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/01/vapor-no-more-ethereum-
has-...](http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/01/vapor-no-more-ethereum-has-
launched/)

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mtgx
What do you mean? Whether it actually _exists_ or whether it will have a
significant impact on the world?

If it's the former, the network has just recently launched and you can buy
"ether" from a few crypto-coin exchanges. Also "apps" on top of Ethereum will
start showing up soon. Augur.net has a crowdsale tomorrow.

If it's the latter, well who knows? It's been years since Bitcoin was created
and it's still debatable whether it was "successful" in changing the world or
not. Ethereum promises to allow many more "Bitcoin-like" apps on top of it
(but not necessarily currencies, also other types of decentralized apps), so
from that point of view it may have higher potential at least.

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bobajeff
I just looked at the etherium page and it says they already launched it and
there are already companies/applications built using it.

That doesn't really answer the question one way or the other. Still, for what
it's worth I would like to remain optimistic about it.

