The materials on this website or any third-party websites accessed herein are not associated with and have not been reviewed or approved by: (i) Valkyrie Funds LLC dba CoinShares Valkyrie, its products, or the distributor of its products, or (ii) CoinShares Co., its products, or the marketing agent of its products.
Ethereum is designed to transfer value across a network that extends globally, allowing assets to be programmatically transacted between users, or even automated applications. Ether (ETH), like bitcoin, can be transferred peer-to-peer without using a third-party, such as a bank or payment provider. Transactions are as straightforward as sending an email in the same way that emails are sent from software called mailboxes, ETH is sent from software called wallets.
However, Ethereum's transferability extends beyond simple transactions. With the use of smart contracts, assets can be exchanged automatically and programmatically. For example, a user can borrow ETH from one application, trade it on an exchange, and use the potential profit to repay the loan—all in a single transaction.
As such, Ethereum is designed to enable highly flexible and programmable financial activities, which under conditions that can be arbitrarily complex, encompass the free transfer of assets.
The ability to programmatically manage, transfer, and interact with assets is part of what has made Ethereum useful as a platform for finance services applications. Users interact directly with the network and applications, in a transparent and open way, with all transfers recorded publicly to Ethereum's blockchain.