Ether (ETH) is the native utility token of Ethereum, released in 2015. Initially proposed by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum was eventually developed and authored by a team consisting of Buterin, Gavin Wood, and Joseph Lubin.

Ethereum is a programmable platform that allows users to build new applications on it. These decentralized applications, called “dapps”, always run as programmed and ensure security and easy accessibility around the world. Since its release, the platform has been used to design thousands of applications for anything from electronic voting to music streaming to banking. 

As of 2019, Ether is ranked second among cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.