Digging Further into Ethereum

Smart Contracts

As i mentioned in my previous post, i am slowly reading up on Ethereum in an attempt to understand the underlying value proposition. It has become a bit more clear there is still some things that seems puzzling to me. By now i feel like i understand the concept of smart contracts. The Ethereum documentation show an example where a smart contract is used as an arbitrator in a bet. The contract hold the ante from both "players" and a third party can trigger the payout one way or the other. I do see the idea of this but i have a hard time imagining actual use cases, but i am sure people smarter than me have (and have had) ideas for what to do with it.

Additionally I have finally realized that running things on the Ethereum chain is not about buying computing power, but rather about being able to prove that some action have been taken or will take place given some prequisite

Utility of Ether

Contracts for the Ethereum chain are apparently mostly written in a language called solidity which has been specifically been developed for Ethereum. To execute a contract you pay in Ethereum based on the code in the contract. This is the utility of Ether; To pay for execution of contracts. This makes Etherereum interesting to me, as the utility comes from something more that simply being able to transfer value.

ERC20 Tokens

I have been seeing the term ERC20 token alot. As i understand it it is a crypto that runs through the Ethereum chain. I am not entirely sure how this works in practice, and how Ether it self fits into this. I might look into it at some point, but for now i am content with the explanation that it is a separate crypto running through the Ethereum chain

Next step

There seems to be lots of reading yet to do. I feel i am moving forward in my understanding albeit slowly. Next i will probably be looking more in depth with Ethereum as i don't feel i fully understand it yet. I have a firm understanding of the simpler coins like BTC, BCH and LTC, but Ethereum still confuses me. I haven't even begun looking in to other and more complicated coins beyond the simple explanations. I think Ethereum is a good place to start and might make it easier to dig into other coins

If you think i got something wrong or are missing some core concepts, please comment. Also, suggestions for sources to learn more about Ethereum are very welcome