Ethereum has (shortly) overtaken Litecoin as the 3rd largest cryptocurrency in market cap for the first time on January 23, 2016. This is jubilant news for all Ethereum supporters.

It has been increasing more than 80% already in the past 2 weeks following many interesting news from the crypto-scene. Think for example about Mike Hearn’s recent statement that Bitcoin has failed and that 11 banks, including Barclays, BMO Financial Group, Credit Suisse, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, HSBC, Natixis, Royal Bank of Scotland, TD Bank, UBS, UniCredit and Wells Fargo, of a banking consortium of 42 banks (R3CEV) have positively tested the distributed ledger technology based on the public Ethereum network.

Stephan Hug, the group’s chief architect for Credit Suisse, has noted that:

“Blockchain is an emerging focus for our industry and Credit Suisse. As one of the early participants with R3 we are very happy to be part of the consortium which leads the industry’s research into the value and applicability of this technology.”

What is ethereum exactly? Well, it is not merely a cryptocurrency. It is a platform that makes it possible for any developer to write and distribute next-generation decentralized applications.

Borrowing the concept of distributed consensus and cryptographic proof that makes cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin so effective in trustless payments, Ethereum extends the use of these technologies to trustless agreements. This allows developers to easily build innovative new products on a censorship and collusion-resistant foundation.