Ethereum (ETH) is a decentralized blockchain platform created in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. Unlike Bitcoin, which focuses solely on financial transactions, Ethereum allows for the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), enabling the automatic execution of agreements without intermediaries. Its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), is used to pay transaction fees and reward miners or validators. In 2022, Ethereum underwent a major upgrade called The Merge, which changed its consensus mechanism from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), making the network more efficient and sustainable.$ETH