Ethereum for Non-Technical People: The Programmable Blockchain
This is Day 5 of my 60‑day “learning Web3 in public” series as a non‑developer with a technical writing and community background.
So far:
Day 1: Why I’m doing this and aiming for DevRel/community in Web3.
Day 2: Blockchain in plain English.
Day 3: Bitcoin as the first big use case.
Day 4: Bitcoin vs traditional money.
Today is about Ethereum — the other name everyone hears right after Bitcoin. A good beginner overview that helped me frame this is “Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Ethereum (2025)” by BTC Markets — https://www.btcmarkets.net/blog/beginners-guide-to-understanding-ethereum-2025.
What is Ethereum, in one paragraph?
Ethereum is a blockchain platform that lets people build and run applications on top of it, not just send digital money.
- Bitcoin focuses mainly on being a scarce, decentralized form of money.
- Ethereum is designed as a programmable system where you can deploy code (smart contracts) that lives on the blockchain and executes automatically.
- People often describe it as a “decentralized world computer” or a kind of open, shared backend for Web3 apps.
If Bitcoin is like digital gold, Ethereum is more like a decentralized app platform that also has its own currency.
ETH: the fuel that powers the network
ETH (Ether) is the native asset of Ethereum.
You can think of ETH in two main ways:
As money:
- You can send and receive ETH between wallets like you do with other cryptocurrencies.
As fuel (gas):
- Every action on Ethereum — sending tokens, using DeFi, minting NFTs, interacting with DAOs — costs a fee called gas.
- Gas fees are paid in ETH, so ETH is the “fuel” that pays for computation and storage on the network.
In other words, ETH is both the native currency and the resource used to pay for running programs on Ethereum.
Smart contracts: programs that live on-chain
The main thing that makes Ethereum different from Bitcoin is smart contracts.
Smart contracts are:
- Small programs deployed on the Ethereum blockchain.
- Code that runs exactly as written once deployed — not controlled by a single company or admin.
- Able to hold and move funds according to rules in the code itself.
Examples of what smart contracts can power:
- DeFi protocols: lending/borrowing, decentralized exchanges, stablecoins, yield strategies.
- NFTs and digital assets: art, collectibles, game items, membership passes.
- DAOs: on‑chain organizations where token holders vote and the smart contract enforces decisions.
A nice, simple breakdown of Ethereum and smart contracts is “Ethereum 101: A Beginner’s Guide” by VanEck — https://www.vaneck.com/corp/en/news-and-insights/blogs/digital-assets/ethereum-101-a-beginners-guide/.
What can you actually do on Ethereum?
Ethereum is less like one app and more like an ecosystem of apps that all share the same underlying infrastructure.
Some common things people do on Ethereum:
- Use DeFi:
Swap tokens, provide liquidity, borrow and lend, or earn interest without going through traditional banks.
- Own and trade NFTs:
Buy, sell, or hold digital art, in‑game items, and membership tokens that are represented as NFTs on Ethereum.
- Join DAOs and on‑chain communities:
Participate in governance, vote on proposals, or coordinate funds around shared goals.
- Experiment and build:
Developers deploy new kinds of protocols and apps, while users interact with them through wallets and Web3 frontends.
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Ethereum.org has a “Start here” section that’s helpful if you want to see the range of things built on Ethereum — https://ethereum.org.
How Ethereum is secured today (very high level)
Ethereum originally used Proof of Work like Bitcoin, but it now runs on Proof of Stake (PoS).
At a high level:
- Validators lock up ETH (stake) and run Ethereum nodes.
- The protocol selects validators to propose and attest to new blocks.
- Honest validators earn rewards in ETH; dishonest behavior can get part of their stake slashed.
You don’t need all the details yet. For now, just remember:
- Bitcoin: secured by miners and electricity (Proof of Work).
- Ethereum: secured by validators who stake ETH (Proof of Stake).
Why gas fees and congestion happen
If you’ve ever heard “gas fees are crazy on Ethereum,” it comes from simple supply and demand.
- Each block on Ethereum has limited capacity for transactions and computation.
- When lots of people want to use the network at once, they’re all competing for that limited block space.
- Users attach gas fees to their transactions; higher fees get processed first.
- When demand spikes, average gas fees go up, and simple actions can temporarily become expensive.
Because of this, there’s a big focus on scaling, including Layer 2 networks (like Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, etc.) that handle many transactions off‑chain while settling back to Ethereum for security.
How you, as a user, actually touch Ethereum
Most people don’t “talk to Ethereum” directly — they interact through wallets and apps.
A simple flow looks like this:
- You install a Web3 wallet that supports Ethereum (browser extension or mobile app).
- You fund it with some ETH (usually by buying on an exchange and withdrawing to your wallet).
- You visit a dApp (for example, a DeFi app or NFT marketplace) and click “Connect Wallet.”
- When you perform an action (swap, mint, vote), the wallet pops up a transaction for you to approve.
- Once you confirm, that transaction is broadcast to the Ethereum network and eventually included in a block.
The wallet is your “account,” “login,” and “signing device” all in one, which is why wallet security is such a big deal in Web3.
How Ethereum fits into this learning path (and DevRel)
Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum gives you:
- More concepts to explain: smart contracts, gas, dApps, DAOs, NFTs, DeFi, Layer 2s, and more.
- A much larger ecosystem of tools, protocols, and apps that need documentation, tutorials, and community support.
That’s exactly where DevRel and content roles come in:
- Developers and non‑technical users both need clear explanations of how Ethereum‑based products work.
- Teams want people who can translate this complexity into calm, practical language and walk users from “zero” to “I did my first on‑chain action safely.”
For the next few days in this series, the plan is to stay close to Ethereum and user experience:
- What Web3 wallets are and how to use them safely as a beginner.
- What a simple “hello world” journey looks like for a non‑technical person on Ethereum (sending ETH, trying a small dApp).
- Where things commonly go wrong (fees, scams, UX) and how to avoid them.
That keeps this journey practical and sets up a natural path into more DevRel‑ish content like guides, walkthroughs, and “explain it like I’m new to Web3” tutorials.
