Heavily underreported? Yes.<p>Similar? Yes.<p>Ethereum is different because it is built to be a platform first and foremost. This platform is for allowing other individuals and organizations to build new blockchain technology without having to engineer their own blockchain.<p>Imagine if every crypto company had their own blockchain, adoption of crypto would be unlikely.<p>So, Ethereum allows you to create 'smart contracts' which you can think of as microservices (yeah, code) that exist forever on the blockchain, maintaining application state on a decentralized and infinitely expanding database i.e. the blockchain.<p>Industries will be disrupted by the new concept (web3) of the decentralized app or DAPP. This concept effectively removes middlemen from various processes (middlemen charge fees and own your data in a centralized way).<p>So think:<p>- No more centralized trading exchanges with fees.<p>- No more Google owning your digital identity data.<p>- No more AWS running your computing infrastructure in a
proprietary, closed manner.<p>- Direct licencing for artists and musicians.<p>- Impossible to censor, decentralized news.<p>The list goes on.<p>Why is Ethereum different? It aims to make it EASY for others to create ontop of a blockchain.<p>A few interesting projects:<p>Golem - Decentralized cloud computing<p>Uport - Self-Sovereign digital identities<p>Augur - Prediction market platform<p>OH and don't forget about the popularization of a new (to me) investment model called the ICO, or "Initial Coin Offering" there are DAPP companies rasing millions of dollars in immediate funding in a matter of days right now.<p>See Gnosis.<p>Hope this helps you understand.<p>Edit: Missed letter (on phone), Formatting