What's Unique About ETH?

There are many cryptocurrencies and lots of other tokens on Ethereum, but there are some things that only ETH can do.

ETH fuels and secures Ethereum

ETH is the lifeblood of Ethereum. When you send ETH or use an Ethereum application, you'll pay a fee in ETH to use the Ethereum network. This fee is an incentive for a block producer to process and verify what you're trying to do.

Currently, miners are like the record-keepers of Ethereum — they check and prove that no one is cheating, and perform work for the right to propose a block of transactions. Miners who do this work are also rewarded with small amounts of newly-issued ETH.

The work that miners do keeps Ethereum secure and free of centralized control. In other words: ETH powers Ethereum.

Soon, ETH will become even more important with staking with its merge to Proof of Stake. When you stake your ETH, you'll be able to help secure Ethereum and earn rewards. In this system, the threat of losing their ETH deters attackers.

ETH underpins the Ethereum financial system

Not satisfied with payments as they stand today, the Ethereum community is building its own financial system that's peer-to-peer and accessible to everyone.

You can use ETH as collateral to generate entirely different cryptocurrency tokens on Ethereum. Plus you can borrow, lend and earn interest on ETH and other ETH-backed tokens.

Uses for ETH grow every day

Because Ethereum is programmable, developers can shape ETH in countless ways.

Back in 2015, all you could do was send ETH from one Ethereum account to another. Here are just some of things you can do today:

• Stream ETH: pay someone or receive funds in real time.

• Swap tokens: you can trade ETH with other tokens, including Bitcoin.

• Earn interest: on ETH and other Ethereum-based tokens.

• Get stablecoins: access the world of cryptocurrencies with a stable-value coin (typically pegged to the value of traditional fiat currencies).