# What is Ethereum?

[Ethereum](https://www.ethereum.org/) is a public blockchain network with a vast vision. Ethereum's designers realized that if you built a public blockchain network, you could do a lot more than just track digital currency: you could run a **global public computer**, always available and open to the world.\
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And that's what Ethereum is: it's a global network that is capable of running programs on the [Ethereum Virtual Machine](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/evm/), or **EVM.** Programs are written for the EVM in a language called [Solidity](https://soliditylang.org/), and the network uses a cryptocurrency, called **ether** (or **ETH**, pronounced "eeth") to compensate the people that maintain the network--and also as a token of value for transactions carried out on the network.