Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference. These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property. Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralized blockchain network. Smart contracts allow for the automation of digital relationships and are particularly useful for creating and enforcing complex relationships between parties. For example, a smart contract could be used to automatically distribute funds according to a predefined schedule, or to verify the authenticity of a product being sold. One of the key benefits of smart cont...