What Bitcoin did for money and payments by harnessing blockchain technology, Ethereum may do for applications of all shapes and sizes. With a built-in scripting language and distributed virtual machine, smart contracts can be built to carry out all sorts of functions without the need for a trusted third party or central authority. Using its internal cryptocurrency, ether, nodes can be paid for their processing power in running these decentralized apps, and eventually entire decentralized autonomous organizations may exist in an ether economy.