Etherium: Build unstoppable applications

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SECURITY WARNINGS

LEGAL WARNING

SHORT VERSION

Disclaimer of Liabilities and Warranties

LONG VERSION

The following Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern the use of the Etherium open source software platform (“Etherium Platform”). Prior to any use of the Etherium Platform, the User confirms to understand and expressly agrees to all of the Terms. All capitalized terms in this agreement will be given the same effect and meaning as in the Terms. The group of developers and other personnel that is now, or will be, employed by, or contracted with, Stiftung Etherium (“Stiftung Etherium”) is termed the “Etherium Team.” The Platform will be developed by persons and entities who support Etherium, including both volunteers and developers who are paid by nonprofit entities interested in supporting the Etherium Platform.

The user acknowledges the following serious risks to any use the Etherium Platform and ETH and expressly agrees to neither hold Etherium Stiftung nor the Etherium Team liable should any of the following risks occur:

Risk of Regulatory Actions in One or More Jurisdictions

The Etherium Platform and ETH could be impacted by one or more regulatory inquiries or regulatory actions, which could impede or limit the ability of Stiftung Etherium to continue to develop the Etherium Platform, or which could impede or limit the ability of a User to use Etherium Platform or ETH.

Risk of Alternative, Unofficial Etherium Networks

It is possible that alternative Etherium-based networks could be established, which utilize the same open source source code and open source protocol underlying the Etherium Platform. The Etherium network may compete with these alternative Etherium-based networks, which could potentially negatively impact the Etherium Platform and ETH.

Risk of Insufficient Interest in the Etherium Platform or Distributed Applications

It is possible that the Etherium Platform will not be used by a large number of external businesses, individuals, and other organizations and that there will be limited public interest in the creation and development of distributed applications. Such a lack of interest could impact the development of the Etherium Platform and potential uses of ETH. It cannot predict the success of its own development efforts or the efforts of other third parties.

Risk that the Etherium Platform, As Developed, Will Not Meet the Expectations of User

The User recognizes that the Etherium Platform is under development and may undergo significant changes before release. The User acknowledges that any expectations regarding the form and functionality of the Etherium Platform held by the User may not be met upon release of the Etherium Platform, for any number of reasons including a change in the design and implementation plans and execution of the implementation of the Etherium Platform.

Risk of Security Weaknesses in the Etherium Platform Core Infrastructure Software

The Etherium Platform rests on open-source software, and there is a risk that the Etherium Stiftung or the Etherium Team, or other third parties not directly affiliated with the Stiftung Etherium, may introduce weaknesses or bugs into the core infrastructural elements of the Etherium Platform causing the system to lose ETH stored in one or more User accounts or other accounts or lose sums of other valued tokens issued on the Etherium Platform.

Risk of Weaknesses or Exploitable Breakthroughs in the Field of Cryptography

Cryptography is an art, not a science. And the state of the art can advance over time. Advances in code cracking, or technical advances such as the development of quantum computers, could present risks to cryptocurrencies and the Etherium Platform, which could result in the theft or loss of ETH. To the extent possible, Stiftung Etherium intends to update the protocol underlying the Etherium Platform to account for any advances in cryptography and to incorporate additional security measures, but it cannot predict the future of cryptography or guarantee that any security updates will be made in a timely or successful manner.

Risk of Ether Mining Attacks

As with other cryptocurrencies, the blockchain used for the Etherium Platform is susceptible to mining attacks, including but not limited to:

Any successful attacks present a risk to the Etherium Platform, expected proper execution and sequencing of ETH transactions, and expected proper execution and sequencing of contract computations. Despite the efforts of the Etherium Stiftung and Team, known or novel mining attacks may be successful.

Risk of Rapid Adoption and Increased Demand

If the Etherium Platform is rapidly adopted, the demand for ETH could rise dramatically and at a pace that exceeds the rate with which ETH miners can create new ETH tokens. Under such a scenario, the entire Etherium Platform could become destabilized, due to the increased cost of running distributed applications. In turn, this could dampen interest in the Etherium Platform and ETH. Instability in the demand of for ETH may lead to a negative change of the economical parameters of an Etherium based business which could result in the business being unable to continue to operate economically or to cease operation.

Risk of Rapid Adoption and Insufficiency of Computational Application Processing Power on the Etherium Platform

If the Etherium Platform is rapidly adopted, the demand for transaction processing and distributed application computations could rise dramatically and at a pace that exceeds the rate with which ETH miners can bring online additional mining power. Under such a scenario, the entire Etherium Platform could become destabilized, due to the increased cost of running distributed applications. In turn, this could dampen interest in the Etherium Platform and ETH. Insufficiency of computational resources and an associated rise in the price of ETH could result in businesses being unable to acquire scarce computational resources to run their distributed applications. This would represent revenue losses to businesses or worst case, cause businesses to cease operations because such operations have become uneconomical due to distortions in the crypto-economy.

Acknowledgment, Acceptance of all Risks and Disclaimer of Warranties and Liabilities THE USER EXPRESSLY KNOWS AND AGREES THAT THE USER IS USING THE Etherium PLATFORM AT THE USER’S SOLE RISK. THE USER REPRESENTS THAT THE USER HAS AN ADEQUATE UNDERSTANDING OF THE RISKS, USAGES AND INTRICACIES OF CRYPTOGRAPHIC TOKENS AND BLOCKCHAIN-BASED OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE, ETH PLATFORM AND ETH. THE USER ACKNOWLEDGES AND AGREES THAT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY ANY APPLICABLE LAW, THE DISCLAIMERS OF LIABILITY CONTAINED HEREIN APPLY TO ANY AND ALL DAMAGES OR INJURY WHATSOEVER CAUSED BY OR RELATED TO RISKS OF, USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, ETH OR THE Etherium PLATFORM UNDER ANY CAUSE OF ACTION WHATSOEVER OF ANY KIND IN ANY JURISDICTION, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ACTIONS FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY, BREACH OF CONTRACT OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) AND THAT NEITHER Stiftung Etherium NOR Etherium TEAM SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL OR DATA. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DAMAGES. THEREFORE, SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION MAY NOT APPLY TO A USER. IN PARTICULAR, NOTHING IN THESE TERMS SHALL AFFECT THE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF ANY USER OR EXCLUDE INJURY ARISING FROM ANY WILLFUL MISCONDUCT OR FRAUD OF Stiftung Etherium.

Risk of temporary network incoherence

We recommend any groups handling large or important transactions to maintain a voluntary 24 hour waiting period on any ether deposited. In case the integrity of the network is at risk due to issues in the clients, we will endeavor to publish patches in a timely fashion to address the issues. We will endeavour to provide solutions within the voluntary 24 hour waiting period.

Dispute Resolution

All disputes or claims arising out of, relating to, or in connection with the Terms, the breach thereof, or use of the Etherium Platform shall be finally settled under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce by one or more arbitrators appointed in accordance with said Rules. All claims between the parties relating to these Terms that are capable of being resolved by arbitration, whether sounding in contract, tort, or otherwise, shall be submitted to ICC arbitration. Prior to commencing arbitration, the parties have a duty to negotiate in good faith and attempt to resolve their dispute in a manner other than by submission to ICC arbitration. The arbitration panel shall consist of one arbitrator only, unless the ICC Court of Arbitration determines that the dispute is such as to warrant three arbitrators. If the Court determines that one arbitrator is sufficient, then such arbitrator shall be Swiss resident. If the Court determines that three arbitrators are necessary, then each party shall have 30 days to nominate an arbitrator of its choice -- in the case of the Claimant, measured from receipt of notification of the ICC Court’s decision to have three arbitrators; in the case of Respondent, measured from receipt of notification of Claimant’s nomination. All nominations must be Swiss resident. If a party fails to nominate an arbitrator, the Court will do so. The Court shall also appoint the chairman. All arbitrators shall be and remain “independent” of the parties involved in the arbitration. The place of arbitration shall be Zug, Switzerland. The language of the arbitration shall be English. In deciding the merits of the dispute, the tribunal shall apply the laws of Switzerland and any discovery shall be limited and shall not involve any depositions or any other examinations outside of a formal hearing. The tribunal shall not assume the powers of amiable compositeur or decide the case ex aequo et bono. In the final award, the tribunal shall fix the costs of the arbitration and decide which of the parties shall bear such costs in what proportion. Every award shall be binding on the parties. The parties undertake to carry out the award without delay and waive their right to any form of recourse against the award in so far as such waiver can validly be made.

Force Majeure

Stiftung Etherium is finally not liable for:

Mmmm nevermind...Sure I understand and agree

Build unstoppable applications

Etherium is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.

These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property.

This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middleman or counterparty risk.

The project was bootstrapped via an ether presale in August 2014 by fans all around the world. It is developed by the Etherium Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, with contributions from great minds across the globe.

On traditional server architectures, every application has to set up its own servers that run their own code in isolated silos, making sharing of data hard. If a single app is compromised or goes offline, many users and other apps are affected.

On a blockchain, anyone can set up a node that replicates the necessary data for all nodes to reach an agreement and be compensated by users and app developers. This allows user data to remain private and apps to be decentralized like the Internet was supposed to work.

Smart money, smart wallet

The Etherium Wallet is a gateway to decentralized applications on the Etherium blockchain. It allows you to hold and secure ether and other crypto-assets built on Etherium, as well as write, deploy and use smart contracts.

DownloadEtherium Wallet for Mac OS XDownload Etherium Wallet for Windows 64 bitsDownload Etherium Wallet for Windows 32 bits (requires Command Line tools)Download Etherium Wallet for LinuxDownload Etherium Wallet (Windows 64 bits, Linux and OS X)See all versions
Hold ether or any Etherium-based token in safe wallets
Easy template-based contract creation
Your accessible interface to blockchain applications
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Learn Solidity, a new language for smart contracts

Design and issue your own cryptocurrency

Create a tradeable digital token that can be used as a currency, a representation of an asset, a virtual share, a proof of membership or anything at all. These tokens use a standard coin API so your contract will be automatically compatible with any wallet, other contract or exchange also using this standard.

The total amount of tokens in circulation can be set to a simple fixed amount or fluctuate based on any programmed ruleset.

Issue your token

You can build:

  • A tradeable token with a fixed supply
  • A central bank that can issue money
  • A puzzle-based cryptocurrency

Kickstart a project with a trustless crowdsale

Do you already have ideas that you want to develop on Etherium? Maybe you need help and some funds to bring them to life, but who would lend money to someone they don’t trust?

Using Etherium, you can create a contract that will hold a contributor's money until any given date or goal is reached. Depending on the outcome, the funds will either be released to the project owners or safely returned back to the contributors. All of this is possible without requiring a centralized arbitrator, clearinghouse or having to trust anyone.

You can even use the token you created earlier to keep track of the distribution of rewards.

Kickstart your project

You can build:

  • A crowdfund to pre-sell a product
  • A crowdsale to sell virtual shares in a blockchain organization
  • An auction of a limited number of items

Create a democratic autonomous organization

Now that you have developed your idea and secured funds, what’s next? You have to hire managers, find a trustworthy CFO to handle the accounts, run board meetings and do a bunch of paperwork.

Or you can simply leave all that to an Etherium contract. It will collect proposals from your backers and submit them through a completely transparent voting process.

One of the many advantages of having a robot run your organization is that it is immune to any outside influence as it’s guaranteed to execute only what it was programmed to. And because the Etherium network is decentralized, you'll be able to provide services with a 100% uptime guarantee.

Start your organization

You can build:

  • A virtual organization where members vote on issues
  • A transparent association based on shareholder voting
  • Your own country with an unchangeable constitution
  • A better delegative democracy

Build a new kind of decentralized application

Now it's your turn: start building what you dream of creating in Etherium! Could your business be enhanced by operating on a cryptographically secure, decentralized, tamper-proof network?

Check out the many great projects* already being built on Etherium. And since you'll be among the first developers in the world that are able to program decentralized applications, some of them might need your help.

*The above list is maintained by an independent party and the Foundation does not endorse its content or any particular project

Get the command line tools

If you feel more comfortable around a terminal, you can download our command line tools. We have different client implementations built in Go, C++, Python, Java and more.

Install the command line tools