Ethereum: What Is It, History and How to Buy Ethereum is an open-source blockchain that is on a decentralized platform featuring a native cryptocurrency called Ether (or ETH), similar to Bitcoin. Founded by Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and publicly revealed at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami in January 2014, Ethereum was named after its founder browsed a list of elements from science fiction on Wikipedia. It signals the word “ether,” an underlying and imperceptible medium. Most recently, in March 2021, Ethereum attracted great fanfare, given that a buyer purchased a nonfungible token (NFT) at auction at Christie’s for more than $69 million using Ether.