Understanding Ethereum: Decentralizing the Internet and Building a Global Computer

Before you can understand Ethereum, it helps to first understand the Internet.

Today, our personal data, passwords and financial information are mainly stored on other people's computers—such as cloud servers owned by Amazon, Facebook, or Google. Even this CoinDesk article is stored on a company‑controlled server that holds the data.

This arrangement offers many conveniences because these companies have expert teams to help store and protect the data and eliminate the costs of hosting and uptime.

However, this convenience also introduces vulnerabilities. As we know, hackers or governments can access your files by influencing or attacking third‑party services, allowing them to steal, leak, or alter important information.

Apache Web Server creator Brian Behlendorf has called this centralized design the Internet's “original sin.” People like Behlendorf argue that the Internet has always been decentralized, and a fragmented movement is using new tools, including blockchain, to achieve that goal.

Ethereum is the latest technology joining this movement.

While Bitcoin’s goal is to disrupt PayPal and online banking, Ethereum’s goal is to use blockchain to replace third‑party services for storing data, transferring mortgages, and tracking complex financial instruments.

Global Computing

In short, Ethereum wants to become a “global computer,” decentralizing—some would say democratizing—the existing client‑server model.

With Ethereum, servers and clouds are replaced by thousands of so‑called “nodes” run by volunteers worldwide, forming a “world computer.”

Its vision is to give people everywhere the same capabilities, allowing them to compete in providing services on top of the infrastructure.

For example, scrolling through a typical app store you see colorful blocks representing everything from banking to fitness to messaging apps. These apps rely on companies (or third‑party services) to store your credit‑card information, purchase history, and other personal data—usually on third‑party‑controlled servers.

The apps you choose are also managed by third parties, such as Apple and Google, which maintain and sometimes censor the specific apps you can download.

Take online document services like Evernote or Google Docs.

If everything goes as planned, Ethereum will return control of this type of service data to its owners and creators.

The idea is that no entity will control your notes; no one can suddenly ban the app or take your laptops offline. Only users can make changes, not any other entity.

In theory, it combines past control of information with the easy access of the digital age. Every time you save an edit or add or delete a comment, every node on the network makes the change.

It is worth noting that this idea has been questioned.

Although these applications seem possible, it is unclear which blockchain applications will prove useful, safe, or scalable, and whether they can be as convenient as the apps we use today.