There are currently 1549 projects on the Ethereum blockchain, and we at ThinkCoin are proud to be a part of this community. To mark this, we thought it would be interesting to discuss why we and so many others have chosen Ethereum as the backbone of our product.

The first thing to understand about the system is the EVM, or Ethereum Virtual Machine. The EVM processes Smart Contracts to power dApps (Decentralized Apps), with each computer connected to the network, or node, receiving the same coded instructions.

With the contract-oriented coding language Solidity, alongside Java, Python and others, developers can both design and implement programmes for an almost unlimited range of functions and services. Using Ethereum, all of this functionality is immediately ready, allowing us to focus on the direct development of our particular dApp from day one.

Building on other systems — Bitcoin, say — is a mammoth task. Months of development would be spent tackling both the security and scalability of the system, and modifying the Bitcoin code is a notoriously painstaking and time-consuming process.

Ethereum allows us to build the TradeConnect network securely and rapidly. Building on Ethereum goes beyond these practical reasons as well, because it allows us to be part of a wide community of dApp developers. We are able to connect with others working with the same tool kit and on the same infrastructure, facing the same obstacles. It allows us to collaborate and communicate easily with other projects, an invaluable asset in the new decentralized economy the blockchain will deliver.