The Ethereum network has just turned five years old. Although the project was first announced at the North American Bitcoin Conference in January 2014, its genesis block was only mined on July 30, 2015. Since then, Ether (ETH) has become the dominating altcoin in market capitalization, popularity and network value settlement, having even surpassed Bitcoin in the latter.
Ethereum was created with myriad possibilities in sight, allowing for smart contracts, powerful tokenization, complex decentralized applications and decentralized fundraising campaigns. The latter of these became extremely popular in 2017, as initial coin offerings took over the crypto space and amassed incredible gains for participants.